Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern men's basketball team fell 99-66 tonight to Central Missouri in the regular season finale at
Robert Corn Court inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Despite the loss, Southern (17-11, 11-7 MIAA) has secured the fourth seed in next week's MIAA Tournament and the first-round bye to Kansas City that comes with it. Currently the Lions and Fort Hays are tied at 11-8 and are finished with the regular season. Central Oklahoma and Washburn are tied at 10-8 with the best the two can do is move up to 11-8 and force a four-way tie for fourth place. However, the Lions defeated Fort Hays, Central Oklahoma and Washburn in head-to-head action this season and will be the fourth seed in Kansas City.
The Lions were led in scoring by 14 points each from
CJ Carr and
JJ Cratit.
Kinzer Lambert had 13 points off the bench, while
Lawrence Brown had 11 points and six rebounds, to go with three blocks.
Central Missouri (18-8, 12-6 MIAA) had five score in dobule-figures, led by 22 points from Spencer Reaves.
The Lions jumped out to a 7-4 lead after a three from Cratit with 18:06 left in the first half. The game was tied at 13 with 15:01 to go, but the Mules went on a 13-2 run to lead 26-15 with 12:05 on the clock. A putback by
Kinzer Lambert with 10:37 on the clock stopped the Mules' run.
The Central Missouri lead was 19 (39-20) with 6:14 left and reached 22 (44-22) before a layup from Brown made the score 44-24. A layup from Carr at the buzzer made the halftime score 54-32, Central.
A layup from Cratit with 17:10 left in the second half made the score 58-36, Central. The UCM lead was as high as 31 on multiple occasions before a late bucket and free-throw pushed it up to 36 before a three from
Melton Sanders with 17 seconds left provided the final tally.
Southern shot 44 percent from the field in the game, but hit just 20 percent of its three-pointers. Central Missouri was red-hot from the field, hitting 55 percent from the field and 52 percent from long-range. The Lions out scored Central 40-38 in the paint, but Central scored 19 points off of 13 Southern turnovers.
The Lions will now wait to play the winner of the 5th seed vs. the 12th seed at 8:30 pm on Thursday night, March 2nd from the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
