Fresh off a hard-fought win Tuesday at Concordia Texas, UMHB took a step back with an 83-75 loss to Schreiner on Thursday night at Mayborn Campus Center.
The defeat pushed the Lady Crusaders (12-8 overall, 10-6 American Southwest Conference) into a tie with Concordia for fourth place in ASC West Division with five regular-season games remaining. But because Tuesday’s victory gave UMHB a season sweep of the Tornados (12-8, 10-6), the Lady Crusaders hold the tiebreaker advantage over Concordia in the battle for the West’s final berth in the conference tournament.
“This loss doesn’t change our mindset,” UMHB coach Kim Kirkpatrick said. “Our goal has been and always will be to play consistently against every opponent.”
The Mountaineers (6-14, 5-11) shot 45 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point range and were 26-of-29 from the free-throw line.
“After how well we played defense against Concordia, I really thought we would do it again tonight,” Kirkpatrick said. “But our defense that usually tows the line for us when we don’t shoot well did not tow the line tonight.”
The Lady Crusaders shot 37 percent from the floor and went 9-for-10 from the stripe. They fell behind for good with 8:34 left in the first half.
Schreiner was up 40-34 at halftime, then scored the first seven points of the second half. Behind the sharp shooting of guard Monica Enriquez, who had a game-high 24 points, the Mountaineers led by as many 16 points.
UMHB got as close as 78-71 in the final minute, but Schreiner went 9-for-10 from the line down the stretch to seal it.
Guard Anna Fareed added 21 points for the Mountaineers, who got 19 from guard Courtney Davis.
Senior guard Blair Heitmiller had 18 points, freshman post Landie Thompson added 12 and freshman guard Jenny Black chipped in 11 for the Lady Crusaders, who face winless Texas Lutheran on Saturday in Seguin.
“Tuesday’s game took a lot out of us emotionally and physically,”Kirkpatrick said. “But because of the depth of our team, I feel like we should have been able to handle it tonight.”
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
