Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team fell in a tough contest against Fort Hays State 83-66 on Saturday afternoon. With the loss, SBU drops to 6-4 (2-3 MIAA) on the season.

The Bearcats came out ready to play, with Brian Patterson, Kalund Brown, and Logan Hovey all hitting buckets, to quickly put SBU up 6-0 less than a minute and a half into the game. Hovey added another bucket with 17:37 left in the half before Fort Hays went on a 6-0 run to tie the game up at 8-8 with 15:40 left in the half. The Bearcats came back with a three from Marley Biyendolo to re-gain the lead (11-8), but the back-and-forth battle continued. Afer FHSU gained the lean, Hovey connected on another layup with 13:16 left in the half to put SBU up 13-12. The Tigers responded back to re-gain the lead with 10:27 left in the half, but an Andy Campbell lead gave SBU the lead back with 10:01 in the half. FHSU held a small lead until the 5:07 mark in the first half when Cartier Dean capped off a 6-0 run with a pair of free throws to put SBU back on top 25-24. After a layup from Kahlel Brown with 2:54 left in the half gave SBU a 29-28 lead, Fort Hays ended the half on an 12-2 run as SBU went into the break trailing 40-31.

In the second half the Bearcats cut the deficit back to seven with a layup from Brian Patterson, but Fort Hays responded with a 7-2 run to bring their lead to double-digits. The Bearcats continued to stick around with the Tigers, and a layup from Kahlel Brown brought SBU back within 10 at 51-41 with 13:50 left. However, FHSU would respond to every SBU bucket as the Bearcats would eventually fall 83-66.

Logan Hovey and Cartier Dean led the Bearcats with 16 points a piece while Hovey also added 5 rebounds. Brian Patterson was also in double-figures with 11 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. As a team, SBU shot 40.7% from the field, 23.5% from beyond the arc, and 90.0% from the free throw line.

The Bearcats will return to action on Wednesday, December 30 when they step out of MIAA play to host Sterling College. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.