If you remember back to January 10 th ,  Rick Majerus and the St. Louis Billikens opened Atlantic 10 play at George Washington scoring just 20 points and losing by 29.  Last night the Bills returned the favor beating up on George Washington by 25 63-38, holding G-W to just 14 points in the first half.  

The Billikens hit 14 3-pointers in this game, much better than the 1-19 performance they had the first time they play G-W.

Missouri State loses at Illinois State 69-57. Missouri State lost its 11th straight game away from Hammons Student Center and slipped to 0-7 in Valley play on the road. The Bears are 12-14 in the season and 5-9 in the Valley with four league games to play.

The Missouri Western men’s basketball team found offense tough to come by in Pittsburg, Kansas against the Pittsburg State Gorillas as they would fall 67-54. The last time the Griffons lost to the Gorillas twice in a season was during the 1999-2000 season when the Gorillas defeated the Griffons two out of three times. With the loss Griffons fall to 9-13 overall and 3-10 in the MIAA.

The #15 SBU Bearcats were defeated by Washburn, 68-71, leaving SBU’s MIAA record at 10-3.  The Bearcats had four players in double figures, led by Nick Kovacevich’s output of 15 points. Kovacevich shot 6 of 13 on the evening, which included 3 of 8 from long range.  SBU was down by nine points with just 1:30 to play, and cut the lead to just 3 with 40 seconds remaining. But the Bearcats couldn’t get the final key possession they needed.  As a team, the Bearcats shot 38.1% from the field and 33.3% from the three-point line. They hit on 8 of 12 free throw attempts for 66.7%. SBU was out-rebounded 36-42.

The Missouri Southern men’s basketball team clinched a spot in the 2008 MIAA Tournament and moved into a first place tie in the MIAA, defeating Emporia State on the road, 80-69 in White Auditorium.

Southern (16-6, 10-3 MIAA) is now tied with Southwest Baptist for first place in the MIAA as the Bearcats lost at Washburn tonight, 71-68. Saturday night’s game between the two teams in Bolivar will be for outright possession of first place in the conference. Ironically, when the two teams met earlier in the year, the exact same situation was in play, with SBU taking the first meeting, 90-77 in Joplin.

The Bulldog men’s basketball team scored only 12 second-half points while Northwest Missouri finished with 11 total three-pointers to help the host Bearcats sweep the season series with Truman in a 61-49 final in Maryville.