ST. LOUIS – A shorthanded MBU Men's Basketball squad defeated Hannibal-LaGrange 65-53 at the Petty SRC on Saturday afternoon. Despite having just nine players available due to a COVID close contact, the Spartans put forth one of their grittiest performances of the season and improved to 6-3 in the American Midwest Conference.
The Spartans came out with a suffocating defensive plan and held the Trojans to just one field goal in the first 10 minutes of the first half. An 11-0 run spotted MBU an early nine-point lead.
Hannibal grinded its way back to tie the game at 23 late in the period but the Spartans would end the half with the momentum. Newcomer
Nisheem McNeal-Wright knocked down back-to-back corner threes in the final minute to give Missouri Baptist a 29-23 halftime lead.
Out of the intermission, it was another freshmen contribution that extended the MBU lead to 11.
Billy Francis Jr. scored on the first four possessions of the half, including three consecutive triples, to push the advantage to 40-29.
The Spartans' continued to stifle HLG defensively, at one point holding the Trojans without a basket for nearly seven minutes in the middle of the second half. MBU would use that stretch to pull away for good. A driving reverse layup in traffic by
Jadis White capped another 11-0 run and put MBU ahead by 15 (51-36) with 6:58 remaining.
The closest the Trojans could get from that point forward was eight points. The Spartans made their free throws down the stretch to secure a 12-point, 65-53 victory.
Missouri Baptist was led offensively by
Billy Francis Jr. The freshman posted a career-high 20 points (7-11 FG), 17 of which came in the second half.
Jadis White was not far behind, finishing with 17 of his own. White, the AMC's leader in assists and steals, padded those leads with seven assists and four steals.
Two more freshmen,
Mujtaba Alkhaldi and
Nisheem McNeal-Wright, each finished with nine points apiece. Alkhaldi tied for the team-lead in rebounds with seven while McNeal-Wright knocked down 3-4 from 3PT in his collegiate debut.
"Given the circumstances, we could've easily dropped our heads but we came out and held those guys to two points in the first 10 minutes," noted Head Coach
Preston Ingram. "Our defensive pressure was fantastic. We had to control the pace and I thought we did that. I couldn't be more proud of our guys"
Heading into February now at 10-7 overall and 6-3 in the conference, the road for the Spartans only gets more difficult. They'll welcome cross-town rival Harris-Stowe to the SRC on Tuesday night (7:30 pm tip) followed by a trip to (RV) Columbia on Thursday.
