The Lady Crusaders (15-11), seeded fourth in the ASC’s West Division, bounced East top seed UT-Tyler (17-9) to advance to the semifinals for the second time in three season.
In addition, coach Kim Kirkpatrick’s UMHB team completed the West’s eight-game first-round sweep of the East.
Landie Thompson scored a game-high 25 points for UMHB, which will battle McMurry (23-3) at 5 p.m. today. Howard Payne (26-0) and Hardin-Simmons (21-5) meet in the 3 p.m. semifinal, and the winner of Sunday’s championship game will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
UMHB led by as many as eight points in the first half and was up 40-35 at halftime. The Lady Crusaders pushed it to 65-51 with 11:49 left, but UT-Tyler charged back and got within 75-74 on Alyssa Ploof’s lay-in with 57 seconds left.
UMHB turned the ball and then missed a free throw with 4 seconds to play, but the Lady Patriots’ last-gasp 3-point attempt missed.
Jenny Black scored 12 points for UMHB and Blair Heitmiller and Kallie White each had 11. Kasey Buggs and Melissa Thomas paced UT-Tyler with 20 points apiece.
UMHB shot 49 percent from the field to UT-Tyler’s percent 38.
