BELTON - After fulfilling the role of crown prince at a little shindig known as the American Southwest Conference Tournament, next up for Mary Hardin-Baylor is the country’s premier party: The Big Dance.
No. 14 UMHB got double-doubles from Matt Caskey and Neiman Ford, and held Concordia Texas to only four points in the final 3½ minutes to secure its first conference title with an 82-73 victory Sunday afternoon at Mayborn Campus Center.
In front of a boisterous crowd of 1,650 - the largest since the arena’s opening night in February 2005 - the Crusaders (25-3) stretched their home winning streak to 27 games, cut down the nets and secured their second consecutive berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
“We’ve lost so many really close tournament games in the past, so we’ve been there,” said UMHB coach Ken DeWeese, who has guided the program to eight ASC tourneys. “This year it worked out for us because mentally our guys are tough. And it feels really good.”
“The atmosphere was electric,” said Crusaders junior wing Tilmon Gaddy, who had 18 points and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. “I could feel the ground shaking when everyone was screaming. It was amazing.”
Caskey had his best game of the three-day event and was named to the all-tournament team. The junior point guard scored a game–high 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds.
“I thought I might assert myself more offensively coming in because Concordia’s style is run-and-gun,” Caskey said. “I just wanted to give my team the best chance to win. Sometimes you have to score, and sometimes you have to pass.”
Ford also earned all-tournament honors. The senior guard had 15 points and game highs of 14 rebounds and four assists.
“This is one step,” he said. “Every year we set our goals to be in the conference tournament and then to win the ASC title and be the undisputed champion. We accomplished that.
“Now we’re in the NCAA Tournament for a second year and we’re on a mission. Take it one game at a time. It’s win or go home, so leave everything you got out on the court.”
It took just about all the Crusaders had to stave off the Tornados (19-9), who made 14 3-pointers on sizzling 44-percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Concordia led by as many as six points in the opening minutes, was up 37-35 at halftime and held a 53-49 advantage with 12:42 remaining before finally running out of gas.
Unable to produce any points inside - only nine of Concordia’s 23 field goals came from 2-point range and less than five were scored from in the paint - the Tornados were relegated to long-range bombs that eventually started missing their target.
“Give (UMHB) credit because they made plays down the stretch,” Concordia coach Stan Bonewitz said. “They got the ball close to the basket for some easy looks, and we kind of lived and died with the 3 throughout the game. In the end, we just died with it.”
Down 53-52 with 11:24 remaining, the trio of Caskey, Gaddy and Ford accounted for UMHB’s next 19 points as the Crusaders built a 71-64 lead with 4:36 left.
David Ray’s driving bucket a half-minute later stretched the gap to nine points and the Tornados never got closer than four the rest of the way.
In the last 3:42 of the game, UMHB scored all nine of its points from the line on 9-of-14 foul shooting.
Down the stretch, Concordia got a Brad Walker layup and a Michael Moore jumper but turned it over three times, missed two 3s and committed an intentional foul.
“We made good decisions with the ball,” DeWeese said. “We missed some easy shots we should have made in the first half, but we made good decisions. And when it came right down to it, I thought our defense made the difference.”
Moore (16 points) and Valentino Maxwell (11) were named to the all-tournament team from Concordia, which got 14 points from Reza Farahani and 11 from Joel McDonald.
The Tornados, who scored 105 points in a semifinal win on Saturday, were held 15 points below their season average.
“I would have liked the pace to be a little faster,” Bonewitz said. “We wanted this game to be in the 90s or 100s. (UMHB) did a good job of keeping the game in the half court, and we probably didn’t do a good enough job of forcing the tempo.”
The Crusaders will learn when and where they open the NCAA Tournament at noon today, when the bracket for the 59-team field is announced.
“Everybody in the tournament is 0-0 now, and we know what we have to do,” Gaddy said. “We haven’t been getting any respect in the polls. We’ve been dropping, and we’ve been winning nothing but games. Now it’s time to go grab some respect.”
Notes: UMHB became the first ASC school to win football and men’s basketball conference titles in the same school year. . . . Hardin-Simmons post Mardochee Jean and Howard Payne forward Tom Hermann rounded out the all-tournament team. . . . Any notions of NCAA pairings are purely speculation, but one scenario could be a four-team regional of UMHB, Millsaps (Miss.), Centre (Ky.) and host Maryville (Tenn.). . . . Another possibility could be UMHB receiving one of five first-round byes, meaning the Crusaders would host a first-round winner on Saturday.
nedrennan@temple-telegram.com
