LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — [BOX SCORE] No. 8 Missouri Baptist men's basketball grinded out its 12^th win of the season on Thursday night after a 50-49 slugfest against Philander Smith College (Ark.).
 
For a team that had won their last four games in high-flying fashion by at least 20 points each, Thursday night's contest was anything but high-flying for Missouri Baptist. The home Panthers started the game on a 15-1 run. MBU didn't record its first field goal until 12:16 on a midrange jumper from James McKelvin.
 
The Spartans battled back but still trailed 29-22 heading into the break. The Panthers increased the lead back up to as many as nine at one point. Three-pointers by Jahmouri Robinson and Kai Woodfall trimmed the deficit to one before Pablo Hernandez hit two free-throws with 8:41 remaining to give the Spartans their first lead of the night.
 
It was 49-47 Philander when Jesus Castillo hit a go-ahead three for MBU with 1:34 left in the second half. Shockingly, that three would turn out to be the game-winner. Neither team could register a field goal in the final 90 seconds and MBU escaped with the one-point victory.
 
The Spartans shot just 43.2% for the night but held Philander Smith to just a 34.5% clip. Pablo Hernandez accounted for 17 points to lead the visitors. Both Torrance Littles and Kai Woodfall finished with nine points.
 
Missouri Baptist will continue its Arkansas trip on Saturday afternoon against No. 18 Central Baptist College (9-0, 3-0 AMC). The battle between the AMC's top two teams will tipoff at 3 pm.