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| UMHB athletics photo by CJ Halloran |
The Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team earned a 71-65 exhibition win over Division I Texas State on Tuesday evening in San Marcos.
UMHB took an early lead off a layup from Luke Feely. The Bobcats evened it before Ty Prince hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to three. UMHB pulled away with a 7-0 run halfway through the first half, led by Josiah Johnson with three points in the run. The Cru led by as many as 18 points in the first half, going into halftime with a 36-24 lead.
The Cru held a double-digit advantage through the first four minutes of action in the second half. Texas State fought back, evening the contest at 60 at the 2:30 mark and taking a two-point lead off a basket from Nate Martin with 1:41 left to play. Josiah Johnson made a layup at the 1:20 mark to even the contest and drained the ensuing free throw for a one-point lead.
Johnson extended the lead with a jumper with 37 seconds left, then drained a pair of foul shots 13 seconds later to push the lead to five. Ty Prince added two more foul shots with 16 seconds left to give the Cru a seven-point lead in the contest. Martin hit a free throw for Texas State with eight seconds left to cut the lead to two possessions, but a pair of foul shots from Johnson extended the lead to eight. Mason Harrell made a last-second shot for the Bobcats for the final six-point margin.
The loss, which counted for the Bobcats, drops Texas State to 6-5. UMHB is 3-3 on the season.
UMHB shot 41.8 percent in the contest, led by D3hoops.com All-American Josiah Johnson with 25 points. Ty Prince added 13 points while Nathan Stolz tacked on 10 in the win. Johnson hit a team-high 10 foul shots while Prince and Kyle Wright added two 3-pointers each. Prince also led the Cru with three assists while Johnson had a team-high three blocks and three steals.
“It’s an extremely disappointing loss. Obviously when you get a chance to play in front of your home crowd, you want to play better and come in with a whole more focus. You want to be able to execute your game plan,” said Texas State head coach Terrence Johnson. “But credit goes to Mary Hardin-Baylor. Those were some tough guys tonight. They competed from start to finish.”