Box Score

Emporia, Kan. - Trailing by 11 with under three minutes to play, the Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team came up just short at Emporia State on Thursday evening, 71-69. With the loss SBU falls to 14-11 (7-9 MIAA) on the season.

Kalehl Brown opened the scoring up for the Bearcats with a layup from Cartree Pettis as the two teams went back-and-forth for the first four minutes of the game. ESU used a 5-0 run to push their lead to seven at 14-7 with 15:00 remaining in the first half, and held a nine point advantage with 12:55 remaining. The Bearcats continued to hang around, and five points from Logan Hovey and a layup from Brian Patterson brought SBU back within two at 18-16 with 9:49 left in the half.

The two teams continued to trade buckets, and a Kai Woodfall three with 5:39 left in the half gave SBU a 26-25 lead. ESU responded to tie the game at 28 with 3:37, but a Hovey three gave SBU a 31-28 lead. The Hornets eventually re-took the lead at 34-33, but a Karim Mouliom layup with 48 seconds left in the half gave SBU a 35-34 lead. ESU connected one of two free throws as the two teams went into the break tied at 35.

With SBU trailing 39-37 with 17:10 left in the game, the Hornets used a 10-0 run to push their lead to double-digits at 49-37 with 12:43 to go. The Bearcats and Hornets continued to exchange points for the next 10 minutes, as SBU trailed 66-55 with 2:53 remaining. SBU slowly started to chip away at the lead, after a free throw from Woodfall and a layup from Pettis, SBU pulled the deficit back to single digits at 66-58 with 2:40 to go. Kalund Brown hit back-to-back layups off of ESU missed jumpers, as the Bearcats trailed 66-62 with 1:33 remaining. ESU connected on three straight free throws to push their lead back to seven at 69-62, but two Kalehl Brown free throws and an old-fashioned three point play from Pettis cut the deficit to two at 69-67 with 32 seconds remaining. The two teams exchanged layups, and after two missed free throws by Emporia the Bearcats got the ball back with 11 seconds remaining. SBU was unable to convert on a pair of shots down the stretch as the Bearcats came up just short in a 71-69 loss.

Logan Hovey and Kalehl Brown both had a team high 15 points, while Cartree Pettis chipped in 11 points in the loss. As a team SBU shot 50.0% from the field, 45.5% from beyond the arc, and 66.7% from the line.

The Bearcats will return to action on Saturday, February 18 when they travel to Washburn. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from Lee Arena in Topeka, Kansas.