Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern men's basketball team went into the locker room up by 11 at the break and held on to win 85-74 tonight over visiting Rockhurst inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. 
 
Southern (4-0)was led in scoring by 15 points each from CJ Carr and JJ Crattit. Five Lions scored in double-figures as Kinzer Lambert and Elyjah Clark had 14 and Dexter Frisbie had 11. 
 
Rockhurst (2-2) was led in scoring by 16 points from Undra Wilson. 
 
Both teams traded baskets early in the first half, before a jumper from Frisbie made the score 22-18 with 9:28 left in the half. A three from Parker Jennings gave the Lions a 28-22 lead with 7:12 left, and a pair of freebies from Lambert with 5:27 to go pushed the lead to 34-26.
 
A layup from Melton Sanders with 4:46 left made the lead 11 (39-28) and a three-point play from Lambert with 2:25 left gave the Lions a 44-33 lead at the break. Neither team scored in the final 2:25 of the half.
 
Southern started the second half on an 8-0 run and a layup from Cratit made the score 52-33 with 17:59 left in the half. The lead was 13 (56-43) after a layup from Clark, but a 6-0 run by the Hawks cut the lead to seven (58-51) with 12:07 to go.
 
Both teams traded points the next five minutes with the Rockhurst deficit never getting lower than five and the Lions' lead never higher than eight. Southern, however utilized a nifty pass from Carr to Frisbie to go up 67-57 with 6:41 to go and a three from Carr made the score 70-59 the next trip down.
 
The Lions' lead was ten (74-64) at 2:26 to go and a layup from Carr with 1:25 left made the score 77-66 and an alley-oop dunk from Brown to Lambert made the score 81-71 with just under 30 seconds left.

The Lions had a 42-24 advantage in the paint and scored 21 points off of 21 Rockhurst turnovers. Southern had a 32-27 advantage in rebounds, including 12-6 on the offensive boards that saw the Lions out score Rockhurst 15-6 in second-chance points and hold a 13-2 advantage in fast-break points. 

The Lions will be back in action this Friday when Southern plays against Missouri S&T as part of the Drury Thanksgiving Classic. Tip off from the O'Reilly Family Events Center is slated for 1 pm.