WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. – Missouri Baptist Men's Basketball earned its 13^th straight win on Tuesday, knocking off Williams Baptist 86-71 in Walnut Ridge, Ark. The Spartans can clinch the AMC regular season title outright with a win at home against UHSP on Thursday.
 
It was another flying start on Tuesday night as the Spartans scored the game's first eight points. Williams Baptist, meanwhile, could not have started slower out of the gate. It took the Eagles nearly 10 minutes to score its second basket.
 
WBU would settle in eventually and chipped away at the MBU lead into the latter stages of the half. A running floater by Jadis White as time expired found the bottom of the bucket and gave the Spartans a momentum boost going into intermission. They led 46-35 after 20 minutes.
 
Much of the scoring in the first half was done by Brendon Hardy and RJ Pair from behind the 3PT line. Hardy was 4-5 from deep for 12 points while Pair picked up where he left off over the weekend going 3-5 from the field and 2-3 from 3PT for 11 points.
 
With a double-digit lead in tow at the break, the Spartans turned to the inside game in the second half. That's where John Yaeger took over. The graduate senior converted on 4-5 attempts for nine points. Two of those points were especially noteworthy as they were career points number 1000 and 1001 for the former standout at Lutheran South HS. Yaeger reached the milestone in style with a two-hand dunk at 7:54 of the second half.
 
The Spartan lead dipped below 10 for a total of 21 seconds in the second half in what turned out to be another comfortable road victory.
 
Six Spartans finished in double figures with Pair and Yaeger tying for the team-high (16). Hardy added 15 while Mujtaba Alkhaldi and Tyrell Andrews each posted 10. Jadis White came through with a full stat line featuring 11 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.
 
The deep ball was falling all night as MBU knocked down 10-17 from beyond the arc – the second-best team mark of the season from 3PT, trailing only the 64.4% clip set in the first meeting with Williams Baptist.
 
With the win, the Spartans are guaranteed of at least a share of the AMC Regular Season title, but they can lock it up outright on Thursday. Tip time at the Carl & Deloris Petty SRC is set for 7:30 pm. A special senior night presentation will also take place prior to Thursday's game.