ST. LOUIS— [BOX SCORE] No. 3 ranked Missouri Baptist men's basketball gave the home crowd at the Carl and Deloris Petty SRC plenty to cheer about on Thursday night. The Spartans pulled away from St. Louis College of Pharmacy early and staged their own personal slam dunk contest in the second half on the way to a 90-65 victory.
 
Fueled by one of the loudest crowds of the season, the Spartans pounced on the Eutectics in the first half. They held a 19-2 lead after seven minutes of the opening frame. STLCOP finally recorded their first field goal with 12:45 showing on the clock.
 
Mo. Bap built a 27-point advantage (49-22) heading into the break. James McKelvin nearly posted a double-double in the first half alone. The junior pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds and scored eight points in 14 minutes.
 
The lead grew to as many as 36 after a few minutes of the second half. With the third game of a three-game week still to be played on Saturday, the Spartans were able to empty their bench for the final 15 minutes.
 
Despite the issue not being in doubt at that point, the fireworks were just getting started. Thunderous dunks from Rick Hill and Gerald Moore as well as an alley-oop from John Yaeger to Torrance Littles gave the raucous crowd plenty to cheer about.
 
McKelvin was allowed to complete his double-double before calling it a night with 8:20 left in the second half. The Hazelwood East product posted 13 points (6-11 FG) to go along with the career-high 13 rebounds.
 
Kai Woodfall came up one point and one assist shy of joining McKelvin on the double-double front. Woodfall finished with nine points and a career-high nine assists.
 
Junior Hasaan DeCarolis led MBU with 15 points.  With the Spartans missing leading assist man Jahmouri Robinson (ankle), DeCarolis picked up the extra time, playing a season-high 28 minutes.
 
Pablo Hernandez and John Yaeger were the others to reach double figures for MBU. Hernandez posted 15 points in just 16 minutes while Yaeger finished with 12 on 4-6 shooting. As a team the Spartans shot 58.1% from the field (36-62). 
 
Now sitting at 20-0 overall and 12-0 in the AMC, the Spartans will get ready for their next test on Saturday afternoon. They'll welcome Park University (Mo.) (9-8, 7-4 AMC) to the SRC for a 3 pm tip. MBU won the first meeting against the Pirates 71-54 back in Parkville back in November.