Box Score Russellville, Ark. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team claimed their third straight victory on Friday evening, taking down Ouachita Baptist 74-70. With the victory, SBU moves to 3-3 on the season.

The Bearcats were once again in battle with a talented squad, and Ouachita Baptist jumped out to a quick start, scoring the game's first six points. The Tigers held a small advantage over SBU for the first eight minutes of the game, but a three from Quinton Smith with 11:54 left in the first half gave the Bearcats their first lead at 11-9. The Bearcats used an 18-2 run to extend their lead to 12 (23-11) with 6:36 left before the break. However, Ouachita Baptist responded right back with a 14-2 run of their own to tie the game up at 25-25 with 4:27 left in the first half. The Bearcats and Tigers exchanged leads for the remainder of the half with Southwest Baptist heading into the break trailing 32-29.

In the second half OBU came out strong, extending their lead to 10 at 45-35 with 16:12 to go in the contest. The Bearcats bounced right back, using an 8-0 run to cut the lead to two, but OBU kept the Bearcats at arm's length away before SBU finally broke through and tied the game up off of a three from Menas Stephens at the 4:31 mark in the second half. Stephens then put the Bearcats on his back, hitting back-to-back three's out of the media timeout to give SBU a 67-61 lead with 2:37 to go. Over the final two minutes of the contest, Stephens hit six free throws to help clinch a 74-70 victory over the Tigers. Stephens was fantastic down the stretch, scoring 15 of SBU's final 16 points in the contest.

Menas Stephens gave Southwest Baptist his fourth double-double on the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Quinton Smith continued his strong play, scoring 13 points, while Patrick Burke had career highs in points (10) and rebounds (9) while narrowly missing out on a double-double. Post Finn Delany also gave SBU solid minutes, scoring 8 points off of the bench. As a team SBU shot 41.8% from the field, 45.5% from beyond the arc, and 69.2% from the free throw line.

The Bearcats will quickly return to action on Saturday, November 29 when they play host school Arkansas Tech. Play is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. from Russellville, Arkansas.