Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team received a big game from Brian Patterson as they picked up a big 70-60 victory over Nebraska-Kearney on Thursday evening. With the win, SBU improves to 6-2 (2-1 MIAA) on the season.

The Bearcats and Lopers exchanged buckets to open up the contest, with layups from Marley Biyendolo and Brian Patterson to give SBU an early 4-2 lead. UNK answered quickly with a 7-0 run, as SBU went down 9-4, but a Patterson jumper with 9:24 left in the first half gave the lead back to SBU at 12-11. SBU and UNK once again exchanged baskets, with SBU holding a small lead over the next seven minutes of action. After leading 26-24 with 2:28 left in the half, a pair of free throw from Logan Hovey, a layup from Cartier Dean, and a three from Andy Campbell right before the break gave SBU a 33-24 halftime lead.

In the second half the Bearcats continued to push their lead, taking a double-digit advantage (40-29) off of a Biyendolo layup with 16:44 left in the game. UNK slowly started to chip away at the lead, using a 10-0 run to cut the SBU lead down to one, but a big Eli Sample three with 13:20 left gave the Bearcats a 43-39 lead. Kearney responded by taking their first lead of the second half (45-43) with 11:09 to go, and SBU and UNK exchanged baskets over the next six minutes before a pair of free throws by Patterson gave SBU the lead back at 53-51 with 4:45 to go. SBU used a 6-0 run off of free throws from Patterson and a steal and layup from Nate Nahirny to extend their lead to 57-51. UNK continued to hang around, cutting the SBU lead back to two (57-55) with 3:12 left, but a layup from Elliott Warren and a pair of free throws from Sample once again stretch it back to six (61-55). UNK would give once last surge, cutting the lead to three (63-60) with 1:34 left, but strong SBU defense and clutch free throws sealed the 70-60 victory for the Bearcats.

Brian Patterson led the Bearcats with a career high 25 points off of 8 of 12 shooting from the field, while also collecting a game high 9 rebounds. Off of the bench, Eli Sample chipped in 11 points while Marley Biyendolo added 8 points and Logan Hovey had 8 points and 7 rebounds. As a team, SBU shot 45.3% from the field, 33.3% from beyond the arc, and 90.0% from the free throw line.

The Bearcats will hit the road for their first road contest of the 2015-16 season on Saturday, December 12 when they travel to Washburn. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from Topeka, Kansas.