Tilmon Gaddy poured in 27 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, and UMHB shot a blistering 54 percent from the field to put away Concordia Texas 92-77 Monday night at newly built Concordia Field House.
The Crusaders (5-5, 3-3 American Southwest Conference), who last year beat the Tornados to win the ASC Tournament, stretched a four-point halftime lead to as many as 19 points in starting a brutal five-game road trip on the right foot.
“When our guys are mentally prepared and focused, they can play. But when we’re not, we can’t beat anybody,” said UMHB coach Ken DeWeese, whose squad was coming off an uninspired loss at home to Texas-Tyler on Friday. “When we’re not there mentally, we collapse when little things go wrong. Tonight, we didn’t let that stuff bother us.”
In a game that featured 33 first-half fouls and 61 overall, the Crusaders trailed by seven points less than 3 minutes in before taking control.
It all started with Gaddy, who scored all 10 of his team’s points to tie it at 14.
“I just kept calling for the ball down low,” said Gaddy, who was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line in the first half and 13-of-14 overall. “I knew I could score or get to the line.”
After Concordia (4-6, 3-3) shot 46 percent in the first half - when it was 4-for-8 from beyond the arc - UMHB clamped down the rest of the way. The Tornados shot just 28 percent, including 1-of-6 from long range, in the final 20 minutes.
“We probably would have liked the pace to be a little bit faster,” said Concordia coach Stan Bonewitz, whose squad is averaging 92 points in its victories and 76 in its last five losses. “But I think the biggest difference was that they did a good job of getting the ball in the paint and we didn’t have an answer. They were shooting layups and we were shooting jumpers.”
A 13-4 run to open the second half pushed the Crusaders’ lead to 59-48, and the deficit dipped below double digits for just a few seconds the rest of the way.
Jason Wagner had 12 points and was the only other player in double figures for UMHB, which was 31-of-57 from the floor.
Joel McDonald scored nine of his 11 points in the first half, and Brian Elarms had seven of his 11 in the second for the Tornados.
The Crusaders, who were 26-of-32 from the line, continue their road trip with games Thursday at Louisiana College and Saturday at Mississippi College. They follow that with a Jan. 15 game at Sul Ross State, meaning they’ll make the longest possible conference trip - Clinton, Miss., to Alpine - during a two-game stretch. They wrap up their road excursion Jan. 17 at Howard Payne in Brownwood.
“It just worked out this way where we have to do that Mississippi-to-Alpine thing,” said DeWeese, who held a full-fledged workout immediately following the loss to UT-Tyler. “But if we play like we did tonight, we should come out of this trip OK.”
Added Gaddy: “That practice was brutal because you already know you messed up once, so you have to go hard to get things fixed. It was a great experience, though. You probably don’t want to lose any more games after that practice. And tonight’s game was very big because this road trip is going to be a challenge. We got this one, now we want to get the next one at Louisiana College and keep it rolling.”
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
