February 24, 2016
BASKETBALL (W): MARSHALL, Texas (2/24/16) – With an overall of 16-9 and an ASC record of 8-7, the East Texas Baptist University women’s basketball team have qualified for the American Southwest Conference Tournament for the first time since the 2012-2013 season and eight overall in the program. They finish as the third seed in the ASC East Division and will be heading to Tyler, Texas, where they will competing for a chance to win the ASC Tournament. They start the tournament against the second place team in the West Division, Mary Hardin-Baylor, in the first round.
ETBU closed out their regular season with a 68-53 win against Belhaven. Taylee Alexander collected her eighth double-double of the season as she picked up 19 points and 15 rebounds. Morgan Garrett and Malaisia Chisholm each would each have nine points while Lauren Lee had seven points and five rebounds.
April Leonard is still seventh in the conference in scoring at 14.6 points per game, seventh in steals (2.0 per game), ninth in three-point field goals made (1.8 per game), 10th in assists at three per game and tenth in free-throw percentage at 68.5%. Alexander is first in field goal percentage at 53.1%, fifth in rebounding at 8.8 per game and blocked shots with 1.8 per game, ninth in offensive rebounds with 2.8 and fifth in defensive rebounds with six per game. Cekret Davis is eighth in assists with 3.2 per game and Lee is tenth in the conference with one block per game.
With the regular season done, ETBU will look ahead to their first round matchup against UMHB. In their previous matchup, ETBU was given their first home defeat of the season as UMHB took the match up, 80-62. For ETBU, two players reached double figures for ETBU as Leonard had 13 points while Ambrosia Woodard tallied 12 points on four-of-six from three-point range. Malaisia Chisholm also contributed with nine points and five assists while Cekret Davis led the team with seven rebounds.
At the close of the regular season, the Crusaders score 65.9 points per game while allowing 62.2 ppg. They make 37.9% from the field in comparison to the 35.6% allowed by their opposition. From three-pointers, they make 28.7% while hitting 64.4% from the free throw line. Jonelle Smith is the leading scorer at 13.5 ppg while Kourtney Bevers and Tori Tucker average 10.1 points per game. Kendra Wynn leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game while Meghan Turner averages 3.96 assists per game.
This will be ETBU’s first trip since 2012-13 to the ASC postseason. In that season, ETBU fell to Howard Payne 88-72. Current senior April Leonard had 16 points in that game along with four rebounds. Overall, this will be ETBU’s eighth appearance in the conference tournament making it in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2013. ETBU is 2-7 overall with their only wins coming against #20 Hardin Simmons 83-80 in the quarterfinals of the 2006 tournament and in 2007 when ETBU defeated UMHB 71-61 in the quarterfinals.
Should ETBU defeat UMHB, they will advance to play the winner of #1 East seed UT-Tyler and #4 West seed Concordia.
Concordia-Texas
Against Concordia this season, ETBU took a 73-57 win in Marshall. Alexander, who had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Leonard, who finished with 16 points, led the way for the win.
Texas-Tyler
Against UT-Tyler, ETBU played the #5 nationally ranked Patriots tough for three quarters in both games falling both times in close knit games. In the first game, a defeat of 72-61, Leonard had 23 points while Lee would add 11 points and four rebounds. In the second game, the score being 76-63, Alexander had 20 points and 12 rebounds while Garrett had 14 points and six rebounds.
The opening game starts this Thursday at 5:00 pm at UT-Tyler.
ETBU Looking for Another Championship
BASKETBALL (M): MARSHALL, Texas (2/24/16) – Entering the American Southwest Conference championship tournament as the #1 seed from the East Division, the East Texas Baptist University men’s basketball will look to defend their championship from last year. ETBU won their second ASC East Division championship this season with a 12-3 record.
This year’s event is hosted by Sul Ross State (Texas) University, and the games will be played inside of the Pete P. Gallego Center in Alpine, Texas. ETBU starts its postseason run on Thursday afternoon, playing the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas), 2:30 p.m., in the quarterfinals.
During the regular season, ETBU went 20-5 overall and 12-3 in ASC games, earning both the ASC East Division regular-season title as well as the division’s top seed. Mary Hardin-Baylor went 10-15 overall and 5-9 in ASC competition, claiming the No. 4 seed in the ASC West Division.
In the Feb. 22 edition of the D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll, ETBU received six voting points. Additionally, ETBU is seventh in the latest South Region poll on Feb. 24th.
To conclude its regular-season schedule, ETBU won 12-of-13 games, including a 78-66 victory over Belhaven (Miss.) University on Feb. 18. They have also won 31 of their last 32 games at home.
During the regular season, ETBU allowed an ASC-low 67.8 points per game. ETBU also led all ASC teams in two other defensive categories: opponent field-goal percentage (38.6 percent) and opponent 3-point shooting (28.3 percent). Among all NCAA Division III teams through Feb. 21, ETBU ranks ninth in opponent field-goal percentage and fourth in opponent 3-point shooting percentage.
This season ETBU had four ASC East Division Player of the Week honorees with Bret Atkins earning the award three times. Atkins averages 12.4 points per game and shoots from 46.6 percent from the field and 82.5 percent from the free throw line. ETBU’s leading scorer, Dylan Augustine, paces the team in 3-point shots (71), 3-point shooting percentage (47.0 percent) and free throw percentage (89.2 percent).
In the rebounding department, Wilbert Thomas leads ETBU with 6.7 rebounds per game. Thomas has six double-doubles as well as seven games with at least 10 rebounds, pacing the team in both categories. In the regular-season finale against Belhaven, he had 17 rebounds, a figure that stands as the highest single-game total by an ETBU player this season.
Mary Hardin-Baylor enters the conference tournament having won three-consecutive games, capped by an 80-79 victory against Hardin-Simmons (Texas) University on Feb. 20. Three players average double-figure points for Mary Hardin-Baylor, led by Demarius Cress who scores 15.2 points per game. Russell Green averages 12.4 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds per game. Defensively, Mary Hardin-Baylor averages 5.9 steals and 2.2 blocked shots per game.
On January 14, ETBU defeated visiting Mary Hardin-Baylor, 73-70, as Tyler Day scored a team-high 16 points. Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Daniel Mills led all players with 17 points.
Including this season, ETBU has qualified 10 times for the ASC Championship Tournament (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016), all during head coach Bert West’s tenure. The team won all three of its games last season en route to claiming the 2015 ASC Championship Tournament title, improving the ETBU’s all-time record in the event to 4-8.
These two teams have matched up in the conference tournament only twice previously (2006 and 2008), both of which resulted in Mary Hardin-Baylor victories.
ASC East Division No. 1 seed ETBU takes on ASC West Division No. 4 seed Mary Hardin-Baylor in the ASC Championship Tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. The winning team advances to the semifinals on Friday, Feb. 27, and plays either Louisiana College or Concordia University-Texas.