Warrensburg, Mo. – The 21st ranked Missouri Southern men’s basketball team utilized a 14-point halftime lead and finished strong down the stretch, winning 67-58 today at Central Missouri inside the Multipurpose Building.
Southern (3-0, 3-0 MIAA) was paced by Cam Martin as the senior scored 23 points and added seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Martin moved into 8th place in the MSSU all-time scoring list, passing both Chris Tucker and Keane Thomann to finish the night with 1,537 career points.
Winston Dessesow scored 15 points and added six rebounds, while Stan Scott scored 12 points off the bench, going 5-of-9 from the field and 2-of-3 from long-range.
Central (0-2, 0-2 MIAA) was led by Cameron Hunter with 16 points.
A three from Dessesow with 16:01 left in the first half gave the Lions a 6-2 lead and a jumper from Martin with 14:11 to go made the score 10-2, Lions. Central fought back and got within one (10-9) with 10:36 to go, but the Lions went on a 14-2 run to go up 24-11 after a layup from Martin with 5:38 to go in the half.
A jumper from Scott with three minutes to go gave the Lions a 15-point lead (30-15), while a pair of freebies from Martin with 25 seconds to go made the halftime score 35-21, Lions.
A bucket from Kyle Younge with 18:45 left in the half gave the Lions a 39-22 advantage, but a bucket from the Mules with 11:35 left cut the Southern lead to just six (47-41). A jumper from the Mules’ Gavin Pinkley with 10:27 to go cut the lead to four (47-43), but Martin answered back with a three-pointer to lead 50-43 with 10:12 to go in the game.
A layup from Martin with 6:34 to go pushed the Southern lead to six (55-49) and forced a timeout for the Mules, while a jumper from Dessesow extended the lead to ten (60-50) with just under four minutes to go.
A three from Scott with 45 seconds left pushed the lead to nine (65-56) and Southern made its free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
The Lions shot 46 percent from the field and out rebounded Central 37-25, including a 13-4 advantage in the offensive boards. Points in the paint went the Lions way 38-22.
