Conway, Ark.- After overcoming the challenges in their way, the No. 3 seeded MBU made it to the final round of the AMC Tournament. They were up against No. 1 seeded Central Baptist College, who they had split with during the regular season.
Those first ten minutes would be the closest the Spartans were to securing the Championship. MBU immediately started off the game a basket behind, but a layup from
Breven McMullen would put them on the board. Soon after CBC would start to pull away, but a jump shot coming from
Keyyaun Batchman and a three pointer from
Nico Hill would keep them in it. Unfortunately CBC would continue to pull ahead, slowly gaining the lead. Another jump shot coming from Hill would keep the Mustangs from taking a ten-point lead five minutes in.
CBC immediately got the basket back, but
Courtland Soll and
Evan Palmquist would put up the Spartans first back-to-back points of the game, shrinking the gap to five. Soll who received the ball on the inbound, powered his way down into the paint, to sink the jumper right over the top of his man. Palmquist then followed it up by taking advantage of the open space in the lane to drive in for a layup.
The Spartans would continue to fight for the remainder of the half to prevent CBC from completely running away with the lead. CBC put up 11 points in the last three minutes of the first half to really solidify the gap and MBU was never able to recover. Despite their best efforts, MBU soon found themselves hovering between a 20-point and 30-point deficit in the second. The Spartans would fall to CBC, 105-72.
Courtland Soll,
Breven McMullen,
Nico Hill and
Mujtaba Alkhaldi put up the majority of the points for the Spartans, totaling 52 of the Spartans 72. Soll ended the game with 16 points and Breven was a basket behind with 14. Both Hill and Alkhaldi put up 11 point apiece.
The Spartans ended the season earning second place in the AMC Tournament. MBU went 21-10 overall with a 10-4 conference record.