(November 18, 2008)- The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team could not overcome Southwestern University's hot three-point shooting and the Cru fell to the Pirates 75-68 in the season opener for both teams Tuesday night in Georgetown. UMHB, ranked 10th in the nation in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 Poll falls to 0-1 to open the year. Southwestern is 1-0 to start the season.

UMHB would led by as many as six points in the first half before settling for a 29-26 halftime lead. The two teams would trade the lead before the game was tied at 37 with 14:41 left. Southwestern scored the next eight points and pushed the lead to 11 at 50-39 with 10:20 remaining. The Cru fought back to within three at 57-54 but the Pirates used a 12-2 run to stretch it to 13 points at 69-56 with 2:56 left in the game. UMHB would not get closer than seven points the rest of the way as Southwestern iced the game from the free-throw line.

The Cru shot just 27 per cent from three-point range and 36 per cent from the field. UMHB turned the ball over 21 times in the loss but out rebounded the Pirates 50-37. Southwestern hit 48 per cent from three-point range and went 18-27 from the free-throw line.

Wagner led the Cru with 24 points and Gaddy added 18 more. Michael Ivey had a career-high 15 rebounds and David Ray added 11 boards to his eight points. Caputo topped the Pirates with 24 points and he hit 7-11 from three-point range. Travis Barber added 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Zach Bergstrom chipped in with 15 points.

The Cru will now take a week off before returning to action. The UMHB men will travel to San Antonio to take on Trinity University in a 7:00 PM tip-off next Tuesday night.