St. Charles, Mo. – The Missouri Southern men's basketball team opened up a 16-point first-half lead and held off a pesky Lindenwood team as Southern won 89-79 tonight inside Hyland Arena.
 
Southern (10-6, 5-2 MIAA) was led by a career-high 28 points from Elyjah Clark as the sophomore went 6-10 from the field, 6-9 from long-range and 10-10 from the free throw line. He also added seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
 
CJ Carr scored 17 points, while Enis Memic had 12 points of his own.
 
Lindenwood (11-5, 3-4 MIAA) was led by 22 points from Brad Newman and 20 from Jackson Price.
 
Three freebies from Clark with 15:10 left gave the Lions an early 7-3 lead in the first half and back-to-back three's from Carr and Koray Gilbert gave the Lions a 13-3 lead with 13:43 to go. A layup from Christian Bundy pushed the Southern lead to 17 (20-3) and a jumper from Memic with 9:07 left made it 22-5, Southern.
 
A three from Clark with 8:04 left made the score 25-7, and a layup from LJ Ross put the score at 29-9 with 5:53 left in the half. A layup from Memic with 1:52 left made the score 34-15 and another bucket from Memic, this time with eight seconds to go made the halftime score 36-20, Lions.
 
Clark hit a pair of threes to start the second half, the second one giving the Lions a 42-24 lead with 16:37 left, but back-to-back threes from Lindenwood capped a 10-0 run and cut the lead to eight (42-34) and forced a Southern timeout at 14:45 left in the second half.
 
Coming out of the timeout, Braelon Walker nailed a three from the left corner and after Lindenwood had got to single-digits, another three, this one from Clark with 12:23 left gave Southern a 50-38 lead.
 
A layup from Memic off a nice assist from Carr put Southern up 61-47 and forced a Lindenwood timeout. A three from Lindenwood with 7:04 to go cut the lead to eight (63-55) and another three from Lindenwood cut the Southern lead to just five (66-61) with 5:39 to go.
 
A pair of free throws from Lindenwood with 4:52 left cut the lead to five (67-64), but a layup from Carr the next trip down put Southern back up five (69-64) with 4:36 to go. Lindenwood kept chipping away at the lead, this time a jumper from Newman with 4:17 left cut it to three (69-66), but Clark made three free throws the next trip down to put Southern up 72-66.
 
A free throw from Bundy and Carr and a layup from Walker put Southern up 81-73 with just more than a minute to go and with 38 seconds to go, Lindenwood was forced to foul to stop the clock. Clark made two freebies to go up 83-75, and Lambert hit a pair to make the score 85-77 with 22 seconds to go and Southern would hold on for the victory.
Southern shot 55 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc and 84 percent from the free throw line. MSSU had a 28-23 advantage in rebounds and had 17 assists on the night.
 
Southern will be back in action on Saturday as the Lions travel to Lincoln to take on the Blue Tigers. Tip off from Jason Gym is slated for 3:30 pm.