St. Joseph, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern men's basketball team got four in double-figures and two with 20 points or more as the Lions took out Missouri Western 85-72 inside MWSU Fieldhouse tonight in St. Joseph. 

Southern (6-4, 3-1 MIAA) was led by Taevaunn Prince as the senior scored 24 points on 8-10 shooting and 8-12 from the free-throw line. He added nine rebounds and five assists. Charlie Brown scored 20 points on 6-11 shooting and 7-7 from the charity stripe, while Austin Wright added 19. Wright went 4-5 from the three point line, giving him 206 in his career. DJ Feitl scored 12 points. 

Western (3-7, 1-3 MIAA) was led by Aaron Emmanuel's 23 points on 9-14 shooting. 

Both teams traded buckets for the first part of the opening half, before the Lions utilized a 10-2 run capped off by a jumper from Prince to go up 30-22 with 6:56 left in the half. A free throw from Brown with 3:16 left gave the Lions a nine-point lead (37-28), but a bucket from the Griffons' Emmanuel made the halftime score 42-37. 

Western cut the Lions' lead to just two (48-46) after a bucket from Emmanuel with 15:21 left in the second, but a layup from Prince with 13:31 to go pushed the Lions' lead back to ten (58-48). A three from Wright gave the Lions a 68-52 lead and a jumper from Feitl gave Southern a 17-point advantage (73-56) with 7:26 left.  A free throw from Prince with 5:41 left gave the Lions their largest lead of the afternoon (18) when they led 74-56. 

Southern shot 57 percent from the field and 47 percent from long-range. The Lions made 69 percent of their free throws. 

The Lions will be back in action on Wednesday night when Southern plays host to Emporia State. Tip off from Robert Corn Court, inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center is slated for 7:30 pm.