St. Louis - There was a senior night celebration going on in the SRC on Saturday (Feb 24) afternoon. The Spartans were going up against conference leaders, Central Baptist College, for their last game of the regular season. MBU honored four seniors before the game - Keyyaun Batchman, Bastien Page, Nico Hill, and Benjamin Sterling. The game itself was quite a sendoff. The last time the two teams met, the Spartans had a rough time against the Mustangs, but yesterday afternoon was a different story.
 
The Spartans started the game off hot, with it not even taking 20 seconds before Batchman put two points on the board with a layup. The senior followed that up shortly after by backing his man down to the block, where he shot right over top of him to add another two points. CBC did fight back and was able to gain the lead, but it was short-lived as the Spartans were determined to upset the Mustangs.
 
Eight and a half minutes in, Nico Hill put the Spartans back on top with a three-pointer out on the wing. MBU would maintain that lead for the rest of the half, besides a brief tie two minutes later. The tie didn't last long as Mujtaba Alkhaldi pulled a couple of defenders to him, and he was able to dump the ball to Evan Palmquist, who made the wide-open layup. The Spartans went on to outshoot the Mustangs 19-15 for the remainder of the half to maintain their lead. A majority of the points came from Batchman and Palmquist, who put up nine and seven points, respectively, in the last four minutes of the half.
 
The Spartans started the second half up by six points, but CBC cut that to four less than a minute in. That moment would mark the closest that CBC would be to tying it back up for the rest of the game. MBU had a firm grasp on the lead and refused to let go. The Spartans would inbound the ball on the made CBC basket, and Hill would bring it up the court where he kicked it out to Breven McMullen, who knocked down a three. The Spartans and the Mustangs would go back and forth after that until Connor Redrow, who received the offensive rebound right at the front of the basket, slammed down a dunk.
 
The Spartans really got the jump on CBC a few minutes later when they extended their lead to 15 with 11 minutes left in the game. MBU went on a seven-point scoring streak that was kicked off by Benjamin. The Spartans were down on their end looking for their scoring opportunity with the shot clock ticking down. With only three seconds left, Benjamin pulled up into a jump shot only half a step inside the three-point line to knock it down just in time. The senior would go on to score a layup after a pick-and-roll move with D'Mari Wiltz. Hill knocked down a three-pointer to wrap up the streak when Wiltz drove down to the baseline and kicked it out to the senior in the corner to sink the shot.
 
MBU would fight off CBC's attack as they slowly began to chip away at the lead. The Mustangs managed to bring the gap to single digits, but with only a minute remaining, there was not much they could do. The Spartans wrapped things up by knocking down their free throws, with Batchman and Hill making both of theirs. Despite CBC trying to put as many points as they could on the board in those last few moments, MBU held them off to defeat the AMC regular-season champs.
 
There were multiple Spartans in the twenty-point range this go-around. Evan Palmquist and Nico Hill both knocked down 21 points apiece. Keyyaun Batchman was up there with them with 19 points and also earned his second double-double in a row with 11 rebounds.
 
The Spartans will now be heading into the conference tournament sitting in the third seed. They will be taking on sixth-seeded HLGU for the quarterfinals here at MBU on Thursday starting at 7 PM.