Jan. 17, 2008

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ABILENE, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' men's basketball came out strong from the opening tip and never trailed by more than two points in a 76-66 American Southwest Conference win over arch-rival and fourth-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor, Thursday night at the Mabee Complex.

Neither team led by more than four points for the first 15:07 of the game and then HSU pushed a 27-26 lead to 41-28 with a 14-2 run from the 4:17 mark to the 1:00 minute mark of the first half. In the run Rian Stubbs and Charlie Pannell hit 3-pointers and HSU was 4-for-4 at the free throw line. HSU led 41-30 at halftime.

In the second half UMHB came out and cut the deficit to nine, but the play of the game came at the 14:52 mark when Casey Riddle stole a pass in the press and Rob Yeatts got the ball ahead to Mardochee Jean who dunked over Matt Caskey and was fouled he made the free throw to make it 48-36. HSU pushed it to its biggest lead at 53-38 at the 12:05 mark on a 3-point play by Steven Luckey.

The Cru chipped away and cut it to 58-53 with 7:35 to play, but HSU came right back with a quick 6-0 run to give them breathing room. Jean, the Cowboys All-American candidate fouled out at the 4:55 mark with the Cowboys leading 66-57. UMHB would get it to five on a couple of occasions, but HSU converted late at the free throw line.

The Cowboys came into the game shooting a league-worst 61.5 percent at the free throw line, but converted on 23-of-29 on the night, including 8-of-10 in the last minute. The Crusaders were only 23-of-38 at the line.

HSU limited the Crusaders to 36.4 shooting in the game and dominated the backboards by a margin of 45-31.

Jean led the Cowboys with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Steven Luckey and Rob Yeatts had 12 points each and Marcus Smith added 10 in the balanced Cowboy attack. Dan Jean had a career-best 10 rebounds in the win.

Tilmon Gaddy had 20 points for UMHB and Ryan Burgart added 10.

HSU is now 6-7 on the year and 5-4 in ASC action. UMHB fell to 11-2 overall and 8-1 in conference action. It was the second straight win for the Cowboys over UMHB. The Cowboys are tied with Concordia for second place in the ASC West. The two teams meet on Saturday at 3 p.m.