ST. LOUIS—[BOX SCORE] No. 19 Missouri Baptist Men's Basketball fell 69-57 on Saturday afternoon against No. 7 Columbia College. The Spartans led at halftime but shot just 28% in the second half.
For most of the day, the AMC Game of the Week lived up to the billing as the top two teams in the conference standings threw haymakers back and forth. MBU briefly held the largest advantage of the first half when they took a 21-16 lead with 6:30 on the clock. Columbia then led for the first time at 25-24 before a 9-4 Spartan run put the home team ahead 33-29 at the break.
Neither team shot particularly well in the first half but the difference came from behind the three-point line. Missouri Baptist made 6-14 while the Cougars went just 1-11. 13 points from Johnny Benson led the way for Spartans.
Unfortunately for MBU, the three-point shooting woes stayed at the same end of the floor after halftime. The Spartans matched Columbia's first half mark, going 1-11 from beyond the arc in the second half.
The turning point of the half was a three from Columbia's Nic Reynolds at 13:54. That gave CC a 42-39 lead and they wouldn't look back from there. A five minute drought put Missouri Baptist in a hole they would spend the rest of the game trying to climb out of.
Columbia began to pull away with just under five minutes to go, pushing the advantage to as many as 10. The Spartans made one more run, narrowing the deficit to 56-52. Ultimately, near perfection from the free throw line put the game out of reach. The Cougars made 20-22 on the day while Missouri Baptist knocked down just 4-15. The final was 69-57 in favor of seventh ranked Columbia.
Johnny Benson finished the day as the leading scorer for MBU. The senior posted 16 points to go along with six rebounds. Pablo Hernandez (10) and Fitzgerald Hopkins (10) also reached double digits in points for the Spartans. Hopkins is now just 17 points away from 1,000 for his career.
Jackson Dubinsky was the go-to man for Columbia. The senior guard was 6-11 from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line for 20 points. Fellow senior Hank Mathews finished with 17 points. Mathews was also perfect from the line, going 10-10.
The Spartans are now 15-3 overall and 7-3 in the AMC. Columbia is 18-1 overall and 10-1 in the AMC. The win puts the first place Cougars firmly in the driver seat at the top of the conference standings. MBU is in a battle for second with Harris-Stowe, who knocked off Lyon on Saturday.
Missouri Baptist will look to get back on track next Thursday against Park. Tipoff inside the Petty SRC is set for 7:30 pm. The game will be streamed live nationally on ESPN3.com.
