Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team picked up their first MIAA victory of the season with a 71-51 rout of Emporia State on Saturday. With the victory, SBU improves to 4-6 (1-2 MIAA) on the season.

The Bearcats were a little slow out of the gates, as they fell behind 9-0 in the early minutes of the contest. However, SBU would close the gap near the midway point of the first half. After trailing 12-3 with 14:21 left in the half, SBU used three's from Afam Obukwelu and Derrick Stewart to cut the deficit down to three at 12-9. The Hornets held a small lead until the 6:45 mark when Stewart hit a layup to give SBU a 21-20 lead. ESU came back to tie the game up at 22-22 with 6:01 left in the half before the Bearcats began to put distance between themselves and the Hornets. Over the next four minutes of play, SBU used an 11-0 run, fueled by a pair of three's from Stewart, to take a 33-22 lead with 2:02 left in the half. The Bearcats would eventually enter in the break with a 33-24 lead.

SBU opened the second half with six straight points, pushing their lead back to double-digits. The Bearcats remained in complete control of the second half, with their lead never falling back to single digits. Southwest Baptist pushed their lead to 21 when Robert Shaw delivered a nice court length pass to Afam Obukwelu who finished the possession off with a fastbreak dunk to put SBU up 62-41 with 6:46 remaining. An Obukwelu layup with 1:57 to go extended the SBU lead to game high 23 (70-47) as they Bearcats went on to a 71-51 victory.

Afam Obukwelu led SBU with a career high 18 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field. Derrick Stewart hit 4 three's en route to a 14 point performance, while Finn Delany added 14 points down low to compliment Daymond Cowlah's 10 points from the guard position. As a team SBU shot 50.0% from the field, 33.3% from beyond the arc, and 66.7% from the free throw line.

The Bearcats quickly return to action on Monday, December 15 when they host Blue Mountain College. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.