Bolivar, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University men’s basketball team picked up a big MIAA victory on Thursday evening, defeating Missouri Southern 84-62. With the win, the Bearcats improve to 13-10 (6-8 MIAA) on the season.
The Bearcats came out shooting the ball well, Kai Woodfall drained a three on the first shot of the game followed by a Brian Patterson layup to take an early 5-0 lead. After a Southern three, Logan Hovey drained a three to put the Bearcats back on top by five. With SBU leading 10-6 with 16:39 left in the first half, the Bearcats used a 7-0 run, with a three from Hovey, a layup from Patterson, and a dunk from Karim Mouliom, to take their first double-digit lead of the game at 17-6. Southern responded with a pair of buckets, but another small run by SBU, capped off with a Patterson layup, gave the Bearcats a 26-12 lead with 7:11 left in the half.
MSSU got two back on a layup, but a 5-0 run from SBU extended the lead to 31-14 with 5:03 left in the half. Southern again knocked the lead down to 12, but a 6-0 run by SBU answered the Lions threat as the Bearcats led 37-19 before going into the half with a 37-21 lead.
Opening up the second half Missouri Southern again cut the Bearcat lead down to 12 (39-27) with 17:15 to go, but SBU promptly responded. Hovey connected on a pair of free throws, followed by a three from Woodfall and layups from Patterson and Hovey to extend the lead to 21 (48-27) with 14:39 remaining. The Bearcats continued to hold the Lions at an arm’s length away, never letting Southern get closer than 15 points. A layup from Kalehl Brown with 7:45 remaining gave SBU their largest lead of the night at 25 (67-42) before SBU cruised to the 84-62 victory.
Logan Hovey led all scorer’s with 27 points and 7 rebounds, while Karim Mouliom chipped in 15 points off of the bench. Kai Woodfall drained four three’s en route to a 13 point performance, while Brian Patterson had 10 points and 8 rebounds. As a team SBU shot 61.2% from the field, 53.8% from beyond the arc, and 68.0% from the line. The Bearcat defense held the MIAA’s top scoring team to 23 points fewer than their average on the season.
The Southwest Baptist University women’s basketball team picked up their third consecutive win Thursday night as they knocked off Missouri Southern by a final score of 70-60. With the win SBU improves to 14-9 (6-8 MIAA) on the season.
Megan Rosenbohm would start the game by hitting a three to give SBU a 3-0 lead, after Rosenbohm’s three Missouri Southern would respond with a quick bucket to cut SBU’s lead to 3-2. Over the next 5 minutes of game time the Bearcats would go on a 15-2 run which would start with an Aliyah Isaac three and a layup. Alex Botkin would make a layup and Rosenbohm would finish the run with six straight points for the Bearcats and would increase the SBU lead to 18-4. Each team would score six more points to end the quarter with SBU leading 24-10.
Morgan Henderson would open the scoring in the 2nd quarter with a layup which would give SBU their largest lead of the half at 26-10. Missouri Southern would respond with a 15-4 run that got the SBU lead down to five at 30-25, but Kiana Peterson would end the run by making a layup. Peterson would end the half with a buzzer beating three and SBU would head into the locker room up 35-29.
Missouri Southern would score the first point of the second half on a made free throw, but Caylee Richardson would then start a 12-7 SBU run with a jumper. During the run SBU would get back to back baskets from Isaac followed by layups from Henderson and Richardson and SBU’s lead would be 47-37 with 5:25 left in the quarter. Missouri Southern would use an 8-0 run to cut the SBU lead to 47-45 with 3:26 remaining in the quarter. Laura Vierkant would end the run with a three pointer, and Mackenzie Skupa would add a layup as SBU would go into the 4th quarter leading 52-49.
Alex Botkin would start the 4th quarter with a three pointer which would start a 7-0 run. Rosenbohm and Skupa would add buckets and SBU would increase their lead to 59-49. Missouri Southern would score a basket, then SBU would go on an 11-0 run which would give them their biggest lead of the game at 70-52. Rosenbohm would score seven points while Vierkant would add a free throw and Taylor Jackson would get three points. Over the final 2:13 of game play MSSU would go on an 8-0 run and the final would be 70-60 in favor of SBU.
SBU was lead in scoring by Megan Rosenbohm with 20, while Aliyah Isaac had 11, and Morgan Henderson and Caylee Richardson added 8. Richardson paced the Bearcats with 9 rebounds, and Alex Botkin pulled down 8. Botkin led SBU with 6 assists.
