| St. Thomas dominated the
middle stretch of this game, but Mary Hardin-Baylor put it back
within reach. Photo by Ryan Tipps, D3sports.com |
Down by as many as 14 points to the No. 1 team in the country, Mary Hardin-Baylor ended the game on a 34-13 run to stun St. Thomas and win 74-67. No. 2 Amherst will join the Cru in Atlanta after the Lord Jeffs defeated No. 3 North Central (Ill.) 52-44.
It's the first trip to the national title game for the Crusaders, or anyone from the American Southwest Conference or the state of Texas, while Amherst The game will be played at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 7, at Philips Arena in Atlanta.
UMHB scored on 17 of its last 22 possessions, including a four-point play and another two on a putback dunk after two missed free throws. The Crusaders made 16 of 19 at the line in the final 10:00.
Allen, scoreless in Friday's semifinal win against St. Mary's (Md.), had 19 points for UMHB, including the tying and go-ahead free throws with 21 seconds left.
St. Thomas (30-2) opened the second half with a 12-3 run to push the lead to 14 at 50-36 and seemed to be taking control of the game. UMHB (27-5) answered, however, with a 14-6 run of its own to close to within six points with 7:44 remaining. The Tommies stretched the lead back to double figures with 6:31 to go, but the Cru ratcheted up the defensive pressure and wrapped 3-pointers from Thomas Orr and Cory Meals around a pair of Layton Zinsmeister free throws to cut the gap to 60-58 with 4:53 on the clock.
After a St. Thomas bucket and a UMHB free throw, Meals converted a four-point play to give the Cru its first lead of the second half at 63-62. Will DeBerg answered with two free throws for St. Thomas, but Zinsmeister drained another three for the Cru. A free throw and DeBerg basket put St. Thomas back on top 67-66 with 38 seconds left on the clock. James Allen buried two free throws with 20 seconds left to give the Cru a 68-67 edge and Orr stole the ball on the ensuing possession, hitting two free throws.
| Amherst got 18 of its 52
points off the bench, eight of them from Connor
Green. Photo by Ryan Tipps, D3sports.com |
North Central dealt with foul trouble early and fell behind 18-9 midway through the opening half before a 9-2 run, sparked a putback by Aaron Tiknis and a steal and layup by Charlie Rosenberg, got the Cardinals back into contention at 20-18.
Amherst (30-2) regrouped and opened the lead back up to 27-20 on Allen Williamson's three-pointer, and the Cardinals' Brandon Williams answered with a layup before the Lord Jeffs' Willy Workman closed the half with a spinning desperation shot that found the net as the buzzer sounded. Amherst entered halftime with a 29-22 advantage despite making just 9 of 25 shots from the floor (36.0 percent).
North Central (28-4) made its bid to take the game over as the second half began, holding the Lord Jeffs scoreless for the first nine minutes. However, the Cardinals were only able to put 10 points on the board during that time to own a slim 32-29 lead after forcing Amherst into 13 straight missed shots.
The Lord Jeffs tied the score on Aaron Toomey's 3-pointer, then got a layup from Ben Pollack to regain the lead with 9:20 left in the game. The Cardinals were never able to regain the lead despite coming within a single point on two occasions, and never got closer than four points in the final two minutes. North Central missed its last four shots from the field.