Three days after knocking off the country’s sixth-ranked team, UMHB turned in a lackluster performance and fell to Texas-Tyler 78-68 Friday night at Mayborn Campus Center.
The Crusaders (4-5 overall, 2-3 American Southwest Conference) couldn’t build on Tuesday’s 73-67 win over No. 6 Wisconsin-Whitewater. Instead, they committed 20 turnovers and allowed the Patriots (5-6, 5-1) to shoot 51 percent from the field.
It was just the second loss in the last 32 games at Mayborn Campus Center for UMHB, which has lost two home games in a season for the first time since January 2006.
“It was very poor concentration on our part,” Crusaders coach Ken DeWeese said. “After the type of win we had Tuesday, you’re either going to have a flat practice or a flat game. Unfortunately, we had good practices and a bad game.”
After UMHB led 7-2 early, UT-Tyler used a 13-4 run to go on top for good. The Patriots held a 10-point lead by the midway mark of the first half and a 41-29 edge at intermission. The Crusaders never got closer than nine the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 17 points.
“We just never made up our mind that we were going to make the effort to play,” said DeWeese, who held a postgame workout following the loss. “We didn’t get any work out of the game so we’re going to get some now. We’re going to get better somewhere at some point, so we’re getting ready to get better right now.”
Tilmon Gaddy scored 15 points, David Ray had 11 and Jason Wagner added 10 for UMHB. Michael Ivey and Tim Lytle chipped in seven apiece.
But the Crusaders had three first-half scoring droughts of almost 3 minutes apiece and didn’t post a point in the first 3½ minutes of the second half.
Wagner, Zane Johnston, Matt Caskey and Sterling Phillips - who tallied a combined 56 minutes of playing time - were 4-of-21 from the floor as a group.
“We had four people play 56 minutes and go 4-for-21. You can’t beat anybody like that,” DeWeese said. “We had the same thing happen (in a loss last month at LeTourneau), where a handful of people couldn’t do anything.”
The Patriots, who continually broke down Crusader defenders with the dribble, were at their best after UMHB got within 58-49 with 9:31 remaining.
UT-Tyler repeatedly worked the shot clock down to single digits and twice hit buckets as the horn sounded.
“We just didn’t guard them,” DeWeese said of the Patriots’ 28-of-55 shooting. “Our feet were slow. We were sluggish. We were extremely flat.”
Anthony Reese scored a game-high 20 points and topped a group of four Patriots who turned in double-digit production. Michael Johnson had 16 points, Hakeem Kareem added 14 and Marlon Hill chipped in 13.
UMHB - last season’s conference champion - slipped to fourth place in the ASC West Division and will try to regroup heading into Monday’s road game against Concordia Texas in Austin.
“I thought we were ready to go coming in, but our play didn’t reflect that,” Ivey said. “We just didn’t take care of things.
“Hopefully during the practice we’re about to have, we’ll get some things done and get ready for Monday.”
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
