Joplin, Mo. – Taevaunn Prince nearly tied his career-high in points as the the Toronto native scored 37 and pulled down 10 in the Missouri Southern men's basketball 85-77 over visiting Northeastern State.
 
Southern (5-3, 2-0 MIAA) was led by Prince's 11-14 performance from the floor as he went 1-2 from long-range and 14-15 from the free-throw line. DJ Feitl had 11 points, while Charlie Brown scored 10 points.
 
NSU (1-5, 0-2 MIAA) was led 27 points from Montre' Williams as two others scored in double-figures.
 
Southern opened up a 16-6 lead at the 12:30 mark of the first half after back-to-back three's from Prince and Feitl. A three from Trey Mohair, however, cut the Lions' lead to 20-19, with 9:06 to go.
 
The Southern lead was 22-20 with 7:07 left, when the Lions went on a 13-2 run, capped off by a dunk from Prince off an alley-oop from Taylor Luster. Southern pushed its lead to 15, twice more in the half, the last coming after a pair of free-throws from Charlie Brown with 16 seconds left, but a three from the RiverHawks with five seconds left made the halftime score 42-30, Lions.'
 
Prince led all scorers at the half with 18 points and six boards.
 
A pair of freebies from Prince with 17:20 to go in the half pushed the Lions' lead to 13 (48-35), and a layup from Prince with 14:22 to go made the Southern lead 14 (54-40).
 
NSU chipped away at the Lions' lead and got to within six (75-69) after a layup from Mohair with 2:19 to go in the game. The Lions' led 79-71 with 54 seconds left and held on with late free throws to seal the win.
 
Southern shot 46 percent from the field and 24 percent from long-range and the Lions shot 80 percent from the free-throw line for the second-straight game. The Lions out rebounded Northeastern State 37-35, and had a 30-28 advantage in the paint.
 
The Lions will be back in action on Wednesday night as Southern plays host to Northwest Missouri. Tip off is slated for 7:30 pm.