ST. LOUIS- Coming off their win against Our Lady of the Lake University, the Spartans looked to keep things going, adding another win against Saint Xavier University. With SXU coming off a short stint in the previous national tournament, the Spartans knew that this was going to be an easy ball game. After playing a solid 40 minutes of basketball, the Spartans emerged victorious in the 89-69 win over SXU.
MBU went on a scoring streak right off the bat as they were up by seven points only two and a half minutes in.
Nick Wasilewski kicked things off for MBU after he cut in around his defender to take a jump shot. Shortly after
Connor Redrow kicked out the ball to
Breven McMullen who then proceeded to sink a three-pointer. Shortly after, the Spartans were able to wind down the Cougars shot clock, forcing the turnover. As
D'Mari Wiltz was bringing it up the court,
Evan Palmquist cut into the front of the basket where Wiltz was able to feed him the ball to make the layup.
While the Cougars were able to earn a few points here and there, the Spartans steadily built up their lead throughout the half. The Spartans found themselves ahead by at the most, 25 points at a given time. While MBU was able to maintain a significant lead for most of the half, the Cougars did manage to chip away at the difference bringing it down to a 14-point ball game at the end of the first 20 minutes.
The second half the Spartans had to fight to maintain their lead. There was a lot of back and forth throughout the period, with the Spartans only outshooting the Cougars 41-35. While in the first half there was a decent mix of points coming from a number of players, in the second,
Keyyaun Batchman kept the Spartans in it. The senior was driving in the basketball to make layups, sinking threes and landing his jump shots.
With one of the Spartans main scorers out of commission for the game, the team was in need of someone to fill in the gap and Batchman did so in a big way. The St. Louis native scored a whopping total of 27 points overall.
Breven McMullen has been consistent on the attack for MBU, putting up a total of 13 points this go around.
Sterling Benjamin made his own impact, scoring a total of ten points, eight more than he had in the previous games combined.
The Spartans will be back at home this Saturday (Nov 11) as they take on Edgewood College starting at 4 PM. The game against the Eagles will kick off a three-game home stint for the men's basketball team.
