ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Missouri Baptist men's basketball lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds against future American Midwest Conference opponent Mid-Continent University 68-63 on Monday evening.
Missouri Baptist (1-2)began the game even with Mid-Continent. The teams were tied 8-8 early and, after taking a slim three-point lead, the Spartans allowed MCU to get right back into the game. The Cougars' Charles Peden hit a three-pointer to give his team an 18-17 lead with just under 10 to play in the half.
Mid-Continent opened-up as much as a six-point lead before Missouri Baptist began to get back into it. Jordan Walker hit a big three for the Spartans to pull back within three. Led by the solid play of Theodore King and Kalvin Lewis, MBU erased the deficit built a late lead to head into the half with 35-31 advantage.
After the half, the Spartan offense really got going. Missouri Baptist began to open things up, thanks to a big team scoring effort. MBU worked its way to a 49-40 lead with 13:10 to go thanks to a bucket in the paint by center Garrison Plummer.
Down the stretch, however, the Cougars put themselves right back into the game. The team went on an 8-2 run to make it a 51-48 MBU lead and came all the way back thanks to a huge second-half by Antonio Davis (8 second-half points) to tie the game at 56.
As Missouri Baptist tried to pull away, free-throws became an issue. Missouri Baptist missed 12 shots at the foul stripe (50% for the game), which kept forced the game down to the wire. Thanks to two forced turnovers in the final minute, Mid-Continent took a 66-61 lead. Though MBU made it a 66-63 game with just over 30 seconds remaining, the shot that would have tied it by Matt Holmes fell short as the Cougars won their third of the season.
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For Missouri Baptist, Kalvin Lewis led the way with 13 points and eight boards. LeAndre Johnson followed closely with 12 points and led all players with four steals.
On the Mid-Continent side, Gavin Scott was the star. The forward posted 17 points, 11 of which came in the first half. He also posted six rebounds and three blocks in the winning effort.
With the loss, the Spartans drop to 1-2 on the season. The team will head out on the road later this week for back to back games with Baptist Bible and a rematch with NAIA No. 21 Evangel before returning home on Saturday for an exhibition game with the Logan College Llamas. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at the Carl and Deloris Petty Sports and Recreation Complex.
