Box Score

Warrensburg, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team fell on the road at Central Missouri on Monday evening 70-64. With the loss, SBU drops to 7-5 (2-4 MIAA) on the season.
 
The Bearcats opened up the scoring with a layup from Brian Patterson and a three from Logan Hovey to take an early 5-0 lead with 17:45 left in the first half. A jumper from Nate Nahirny with 12:31 left in the first half extended the SBU lead to a game high 6 at 11-5, but UCM would come back to tie the game up at 13-13 with 8:12 left in the half. Central Missouri then used a 15-5 run to push their lead to double-digits with 2:12 left in the half before the Bearcats went into the break trailing 30-22.
 
In the second half SBU opened up play with a layup from Brian Patterson to cut the deficit to 6 (30-24) but Central Missouri would answer back with every made SBU buckets. After Nate Nahirny used a three to pull back within 9 (42-33) with 13:48 left in the game, UCM then used a 5-0 run to push their lead to 14. SBU continued to hang around, and after trailing 57-42 with 9:03 left the Bearcats slowly started to chip away at the lead. SBU used a 6-0 run from free throws from Patterson and Cartier Dean, and a layup from Theo Oghide, to pull back within single digits. After UCM pushed their lead back to 12 (63-51) with 1:34 to go, the Bearcats used a 13-5 run to pull within 4 (68-64) with 17 seconds left. However, the Bearcats were unable to get any closer as SBU fell 70-64.
 
Logan Hovey led the way for the Bearcats with a double-double with a game high 18 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Brian Patterson added 17 points down low, while Cartier Dean chipped in 13 points off of the bench. As a team, SBU shot 47.1% from the field, 33.3% from beyond the arc, and 64.7% from the free throw line.
 
SBU will be back in action on Thursday, January 7 when they travel to Missouri Southern. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. from Joplin, Missouri.