Box Score

St. Joseph, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team fell on the road at Missouri Western 71-58 to close out the regular season on Saturday afternoon. The Bearcats will head into postseason play with a 11-17 (6-13 MIAA) record on the season.

To open up the contest, Missouri Western jumped out to a 9-3 lead over the first five minutes of action. The Bearcats kept the Griffons within their sights, and cut the deficit down to two (26-24) off of a Menas Stephens layup with 3:43 left in the half, as they would eventually enter in the break trailing 33-29.

In the second half, Western quickly pushed their lead to eight (37-29), but the Bearcats responded with a 9-2 run to cut the deficit back down to one with 12:24 to go in the game. After trailing 41-40, the Griffons used a 9-0 run to push their lead to double-digits, and slowly built their lead as the Bearcats would eventually fall 71-58.

Menas Stephens led SBU with his 13th double-double of the season with a team high 13 points and a team high 13 rebounds in the loss. Daymond Cowlah and Finn Delany were both in double-figures on the afternoon with 10 points a piece, while Quinton Smith added 8 points off of the bench. As a team, SBU shot 40.4% from the field, 25.0% from beyond the arc, and 75.0% from the free throw line.

The Bearcats have earned the #11 seed in the MIAA Postseason Tournament and will travel to #6 seed Nebraska-Kearney on Monday, March 2. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from Kearney, Nebraska.