Brownwood, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women’s basketball team fell behind early and the Cru women could not get back into the game as UMHB fell to 2nd-ranked Howard Payne 80-38 Thursday night in Brownwood. The loss drops the Cru women to 13-9 overall and 11-7 in American Southwest Conference play. The Lady Jackets stay unbeaten at 22-0 overall and 18-0 in the ASC with the victory.

UMHB fell behind by double digits at 18-8 with 11:08 remaining in the first half and the Cru women would only cut it to less than 10 on one other occasion at 19-10 with 10:11 left in the first half. The Lady Jackets stretched the lead to 19 points at 39-20 at halftime. Howard Payne never led by less than 16 in the second half and simply pulled away from the Cru women.

UMHB shot just 26 per cent from the field and 17 per cent from three-point range in the game. HPU shot 46 per cent from the floor and 37 per cent from beyond the arc. Howard Payne also went 19-23 from the free-throw line, forced 25 turnovers and out rebounded UMHB 40-38 in the game.

Landie Thompson led the Cru with 16 points and she also grabbed six rebounds. Kallie White was the only other UMHB player to score more than three points, finishing with six. Meia Daniels had a game-high 18 points to lead Howard Payne and Stacey Blalock added 13 points. Kimberly Hoffman added 11 points and Elaine Hobbs came off the bench to score 10 points and grab a team-high nine rebounds for the Lady Jackets.

The UMHB women will close out the road trip with a 1:00 PM tip-off at Sul Ross State Saturday in Alpine. The Cru women will then return home to close out the regular season with a pair of home games next week. UMHB will open the week with a 5:30 PM start against Hardin-Simmons University next Thursday. The Cru women will then host McMurry University for a 1:00 PM start next Saturday in the regular season finale.