BELTON, Texas – The McMurry women staked its claim as the team to beat in the American Southwest Conference West Division as they rolled past Mary Hardin-Baylor, 72-60, Thursday night at UMHB's Mayborn Campus Center.  The win extends McMurry's winning streak to eight games and ends the Lady Cru's four-game winning streak.

The win pushes the first-place McMurry women to 14-3 overall and 11-2 in ASC West play; meanwhile, the loss drops the Lady Cru to 10-7 and 9-4.  McMurry returns to action at 1 p.m. on Saturday when they head to Austin to take on Concordia Texas to complete the Central Texas road swing. 

The Lady Cru got off to a quick start as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead just four minutes into the game.  But McMurry responded by mounting an 8-2 run over the next five minutes to square the game at 12 with 11 minutes left in the first frame. 

From there, McMurry continued its momentum as they went on a 16-4 run over the next seven minutes to lead by 12 points (28-16) with four minutes left in the frame.  The Lady Cru chipped a little away from their deficit before halftime as McMurry took a nine-point lead (33-24) into the break.

McMurry continued to dictate the pace of the game for most of the second half.  Both teams traded buckets for the first seven minutes of the frame as McMurry led by nine, 42-33, with 13 minutes remaining in regulation.  But that would be as close as the Lady Cru would get as McMurry led by a double-digit margin the rest of the way.

McMurry slowly expanded on its lead for the next 11 minutes as they led by a game-high 19 points, 71-52, with only two minutes remaining.  The game was out of reach by then, but UMHB fought until the end as the Lady Cru closed the game on an 8-1 run in the final two minutes. 

McMurry's swarming full-court defense proved problematic for UMHB all game long as the Lady Cru committed 26 turnovers in the game. 
Amber Horton, a senior guard from Arlington, Texas, led McMurry's effort as she scored a team-high 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from the charity stripe.  Horton also tallied a game-high five steals.

McMurry guard Dominique Brown, a senior from Farfield, Texas, finished with a game-high seven assists and also a game-high seven rebounds.  McMurry forward Jabri Butler, a senior forward from Mansfield, Texas, came off the bench to score 12 points and grab five rebounds.