Taevaunn Prince went 6-6 from the field and a 12-2 run for the Missouri Southern basketball team down the stretch helped the Lions to a 69-67 win over St. Mary's at the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic Friday.
Southern (4-3) was led by Prince's 16 points as the junior had a perfect day shooting, going 6-6 from the field and 4-4 from the free-throw line. He added five rebounds an assist and a steal. Austin Wright scored 13 points, whileCameron Cornelius added 13 of his own. Bruce Marshall had four points and five rebounds off the bench.
St. Mary's (1-3) was led by 21 points from Justin Alexander, while Marvin Whitt and Marvin Binney scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.
The Lions scored first on a jumper from Prince on their first possession, and Southern opened up a 6-2 lead after another jumper from Prince with 16:15 left in the first.
St. Mary's kept a slim lead early on in the half, however, but a jumper from Marshall off of an assist from Prince tied the game at 17 with 9:45 left in the half. A pair of freebies from Cornelius with just over nine minutes left gave the Lions a 19-18 lead and the two teams traded baskets before a steal and a bucket from Cornelius with 3:58 left gave the Lions a 26-24 lead. Southern held the lead through the final three minutes and a pair of free-throws from Taylor Luster with four seconds left gave the Lions a 31-28 lead going into the locker room.
Both teams traded baskets to start the second half, but after a technical foul on St. Mary's, Luster made a pair of free-throws to put the Lions up 43-40 with 13:25 to go. A three from Wright with 8:46 left gave the Lions a 50-48 lead, but St. Mary's scored four in a row to go back up 52-50 with just over eight minutes to go.
A three from Wright with just over six minutes to go put the Lions up 56-54 and a three from Blaine Miller the next trip down the court put the Lions up 59-54 with 5:15 left in the game. A layup from Luster with 3:43 left pushed the Lions' run to 12-2 and forced a St. Mary's timeout with 3:43 left in the game, Southern leading 63-56.
St. Mary's worked the Lions' lead down to three (63-60) but a bucket from Prince from Luster pushed the Southern lead back to five (65-60) with 2:37 to go. The Ratlers hit a big three the next trip down to make the score 65-63, but two clutch freebies from Prince gave the Lions a 67-63 lead with 45 seconds to go. After a St. Mary's bucket on the other end, Wright hit one of two free-throws to make the score 68-65, but another bucket from the Ratlers cut the lead to one (68-67) with ten seconds to go. Lane Barlow was fouled with 4.2 seconds left and went to the line. He missed the first, but made the second and a last-second attempt was no good, giving the Lions the win.
The Lions shot 50 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free-throw line. They held the lead for ten more minutes than St. Mary's and scored 18 points off of 14 Ratlers' turnovers.
Southern will be back in action Saturday afternoon when the Lions hook up with Midwestern State at 3 pm inside of Bill Greehey Arena.
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