Warrensburg, Mo. - The Missouri Southern men's basketball program ended the week on the road against Central Missouri tonight inside the Multipurpose Building.

Southern (14-9, 10-7 MIAA) was led by Avery Taggart with 13 points and three assists, Winston Dessesow and Sam Thompson scored 10 points to round out double digit scorers. Vinson Sigmon Jr. hauled in nine rebounds to lead the team and had two steals and two assists.

Central Missouri (11-11, 6-9 MIAA) was led by Mikel Henderson with 15 points off the bench, Kobe Campbell had 13 points and five rebounds off the bench as well. 

As a team the Lions held the advantage over the Mules in field goal percentage 42.3-39.6, rebounds 36-30, offensive rebounds 12-7, defensive rebounds 24-23, points in the paint 28-14 and second chance points 16-6.

In the first half a 9-3 run by the Lions opened up a five point lead, 19-14 following a pair of free throws by Taggart with 11:53 left for his sixth and seventh points of the game. Southern utilized a late 12-3 run to catapult into a 35-28 lead at the half with Taggart and Dessesow scoring seven points in the first half. 

Southern held onto a lead at the under ten minute media timeout 48-46 with five different Lions scoring in the half up to that point.  Coming out of the media timeout the Mules would take ahold of the lead with an 8-2 run, the Lions were able to get it to within a possession three times in the final five minutes but couldn't retake the lead.

Up next for the Lions will be rivals Pittsburg State on Feb. 11th with tip off from John Lance Arena set for 3:30pm. Read Full Article