Mariun Price hit a jumper with 58 seconds left and added two free throws twenty seconds later and the Missouri Southern basketball team defeated Truman State on the road, 65-56 tonight in Kirksville.
Southern (8-0, 1-0 MIAA) is off to its best start since the 1999-2000 season.
The Lions scored the game’s first basket as Skyler Bowlin connected on a three pointer to start the game. Truman (5-1, 0-1 MIAA) scored the next five points to go ahead 5-2 after a three from Alex Henderson. The Bulldogs led again after a three from Henderson made the score 8-7, but that would be the last lead Truman would see.
Southern used a jumper from Tony Webb to go ahead 9-8 and pushed the lead to six (14-8) after a jumper from Matt Monroe with 11 minutes left. The lead grew to 13 after a three from DaRell Crittendon made the score 27-14 with 3:40 left. The Bulldogs went on a 7-2 run to end the half, but the Lions led 29-21 at the break.
Leading by nine (39-30) at the 16:20 mark of the second half, the Lions then went on a roll and reeled off an 11-1 run to push the lead to 19 at 50-31 with 13:39 left. From that point on, time would be the Lions enemy. Truman hung around and eventually cut the Lions’ lead to five (61-56), however Price scored the game’s final four points to seal the win.
Bowlin led all scorers with 17 points on 6-12 shooting. Four Lions scored in double figures as Vincent Ateba and Price added 13 and 11, respectively, while Crittendon scored ten and grabbed eight rebounds.
Southern will be back in action this weekend as the Lions play host to Central Missouri at 7:30 this Saturday night in the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
