Then it was back to business as usual for the Lady Crusaders.
After digging itself out of an early 10-point hole, UMHB never trailed again en route to a 91-77 victory over Texas Lutheran on Thursday night at Mayborn Campus Center.
Five days after shocking defending national champion Howard Payne on its home floor, the Lady Crusaders (9-6, 8-3 American Southwest Conference) kept their composure and grabbed a share of second place in the ASC West Division - one game back of McMurry (12-3, 9-2).
“It is tough to get up after a big win like Howard Payne,” UMHB coach Kim Kirkpatrick-Thornton said. “But we talked about how important this game was, too. As good of a win as the Howard Payne game was, a loss in this one would have been more damaging.”
After the Bulldogs (4-11, 2-9) jumped to a 19-9 in the opening minutes, the Lady Crusaders used an 18-3 run to erase the deficit and go out front for good.
Sophomore post Landie Thompson scored eight of her game-high 19 points during the spurt, which gave UMHB a 27-22 lead with 7:03 left in the first half.
“We just settled down a little bit and started working for good shots,” Kirkpatrick-Thornton said. “We missed some easy ones early, but we kept working and trying to get good shots.”
UMHB sophomore guard Jenny Black had consecutive buckets in the first two minutes of the second half and a Black 3-pointer pushed the lead to 14 points less than five minutes in.
Kimberly Hagan scored nine points in a span of 48 seconds to help TLU cut the gap to 58-55 before Black drained another 3 and converted a three-point play to thwart the Bulldogs’ rally.
“You can’t take any games for granted,” said Black, who scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting. “In conference, they’re all big games. And we’re better now at keeping our cool and keeping our composure.”
Kallie White added 11 points, Mallory McAdams chipped in nine and Kellie Thomas had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Lady Crusaders, who share the division’s second spot with Hardin-Simmons (12-3, 8-3).
“Our goal is still definitely to win the West,” Black said. “We want the right to be the hosts for the conference tournament.”
Hagan had 17 points - including four 3s - for TLU. Jocelyn Langford added 14 points, Rebecca Valdez scored 13 and Tamisha Timpson finished with 11.
