By: Jeff Weseloh, Director of Athletics Media Relations
Box Score Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team played an outstanding game against Missouri Southern, but came up just short in a 68-65 loss to the Lions. With the loss, SBU falls to 9-12 (4-8 MIAA) on the season.
From the beginning the Bearcats and Lions played a tough physical game. Missouri Southern held a small lead for the first two and half minutes of play, leading by 6-5 with 17:43 left in the first half. The Bearcats took their first lead of the game off of a three-pointer from
Daymond Cowlah, and after leading 11-10, SBU used a 18-2 run to push their lead to 29-12 with 9:16 left in the first. The Bearcats held steady for the remainder of the first half, keeping a double-digit lead, as they went into the break up 37-27.
In the second half Missouri Southern came right out and trimmed the SBU lead down to three with a 12-5 run over the first three minutes of the second half. From that point forward the game remained extremely close and a layup from
Patrick Burke with 13:21 left in the game gave SBU a small 46-42 lead. The next eight minutes of action saw five lead changes as neither team lead by more than four points. MSSU took a 60-58 lead with 4:09 to go, but the Bearcats remained close. After the Lions pushed their lead to three, a
Finn Delany layup with 2:34 left cut the deficit down to one at 61-60. After free throws from MSSU,
Menas Stephens hit a pair of big free throws with 35 seconds left to cut the deficit back to one once again at 63-62. However, MSSU hit free throws down the stretch as the Bearcats came up just short in a 68-65 loss.
Menas Stephens had a solid night for the Bearcats, pulling down a career high 17 rebounds to go along with 16 points and 6 assists. Down low both
Finn Delany and
Patrick Burke were affective, with Delany posting 15 points and Burke adding in 11 points. As a team, SBU shot 35.0% from the field, 18.5% from beyond the arc, and 81.8% from the free throw line.
The Bearcats will be back in action on Thursday, February 5 when they host Central Missouri. Tip-off against the Mules is set for 7:30 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.
