Kansas City, Mo. - The Missouri Southern men's basketball team kicked off their 2023-24 campaign Friday afternoon. Playing at the historical Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, the Lions faced the 2022-23 NSIC tournament champion Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons. The contest ended with a 99-81 final score in favor of MSUM.
Southern's first basket of the year came from division I transfer,
Cam Williams. Quickly getting in on the action was
Parker Long and
Darius Dawson. Those three were responsible for the team's first 15 points. Long,
Winston Dessesow, and
Lawson Jenkins went back-to-back-to-back on made three pointers, making the score 24-21 MSUM with 9:02 in the first. The Dragons maintained around a 7 point lead for a majority of the rest of the period, but went into the break with a 45-33 lead.
Vinson Sigmon Jr. kicked off the scoring for the Lions in the second half, making a jumper just under two minutes in. A few minutes later,
Parker Long scored five straight, making a three followed by a pair of free throws. Midway through the second, the Lions had a stretch of four straight baskets made, three of those being beyond the arc. Two of those came from
Winston Dessesow and the other from
Avery Taggart. A few other Lions got in the scoring mix before the end of regulation.
Winston Dessesow led the team in scoring with 14 points, missing just one shot. He is now one point away from 1,000 career points.
Darius Dawson finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist, and 1 steal in his debut as a Lion. Also hitting double digits was
Parker Long (12 points) and
Ibn Loyal (11 points). The team went 30-57 (52.6%) from the field, and 7-16 (43.8%) from three point range.
The team will play again in Kansas City tomorrow afternoon, taking on the Bemidji State Beavers at 1:00 PM. BSU defeated Henderson State 76-63 in the 11:00 AM game on Friday, taking a 1-0 record into Saturday's contest.
The Missouri Southern men's basketball season is presented by Arvest Bank, a proud supporter of Lion Athletics.
