Jeff Weseloh (SBU Sports Information) Bolivar, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University men’s basketball team had four in double-figures in a lopsided 97-71 victory over William Woods on Monday. With the win the Bearcats improve to 4-2 on the season.
The Bearcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead to open the game, using a layup from Brian Patterson and an old fashioned three point play from Logan Hovey. The Owls came back to tie the game at 5-5 and 7-7 before the Bearcats re-took the lead, holding a small advantage with a 17-16 lead with 12:34 remaining in the first half. SBU used an 11-2 run to quickly extend their lead to double-digits. The Bearcats went both in the paint and beyond the arc to build the advantage, capped off by three from Louis Baltazar to take a 28-18 lead with 10:20 remaining in the half. SBU maintained their lead for the remainder of the first half before Matt Ritter hit a three with two seconds remaining to give the Bearcats a 49-37 lead heading into the break.
SBU continued to hold their lead, and a three from Kai Woodfall with 16:40 remaining gave the Bearcats a 57-43 lead. After William Woods brought the SBU lead down to 12 with 15:40 remaining, SBU answered with an 8-0 run to push their lead to 20 at 67-47 with 13:31 to go. WWU used another small run to cut the Bearcat lead back to 15 before SBU again answered with a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 24 at 86-62. A pair of free throws from Cartier Dean extended the SBU lead to a game high 26 when the Bearcats sealed the 97-61 victory.
Louis Baltazar led SBU with a team high 16 points to go along with 5 rebounds while Matt Ritter connected on four three’s for a career high 14 points off of the bench. Karim Mouliom added a career high 11 points off of the bench while Brian Patterson had 11 points and a team high 8 rebounds. As a team SBU shot 51.6% from the field, 32.0% from beyond the arc, and 65.7% from the free throw line.
The Bearcats will return to action on Saturday, December 3 when they host Williams Baptist. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.
