Kansas City, Mo. - The Missouri Southern men's basketball team opened up a huge halftime lead and held on to win 76-67 tonight over Fort Hays State in the second-round of the 2017 MIAA Tournament inside Municipal Auditorium.
Southern (18-11) will move on to play third ranked Northwest Missouri at 2:30 pm on Saturday afternoon in the MIAA Tournament semifinals. The Lions are the only team to defeat Northwest this season.
Southern was led by 20 points from Elyjah Clark as the freshman led four in double-figures. Clark went 5-12 from the field, including 5-10 from the three-point line, giving him 87 three pointers this season, just one from tying the MSSU single-season record of 88 set by Austin Wright last season.
CJ Carr scored 19, while Lawrence Brown had 13 points and nine boards with JJ Cratit scoring 12.
Fort Hays (18-11) was led by 20 points from Rob Davis.
The Lions started on fire as three's from Carr and Clark helped spur a 9-0 run to start the game forcing a Tigers timeout. The lead was 11-0 after another jumper from Carr and moved to 16-3 after a jumper from Cratit.
Southern led 21-12 after a free throw from Clark, but the Tigers went on a 5-0 run before a three from Carr pushed the lead back to seven at 24-14 with 7:29 left. A jumper from Dedter Frisbie off an assist from Carr forced another FHSU timeout and a three from Clark the next trip down gave the Lions a 29-17 lead with 5:38 left.
A three from Clark pushed the lead to 12 (34-22) with three to go, and another three from Clark gave the Lions a 39-24 lead with 1:44 left. One more three from Clark, his fifth of the half, pushed the Lions' lead to 42-24, while a three-point play from Cratit and a late FHSU three made the halftime score 45-30, Lions.
The Tigers started the second half on an 8-0 run before a three-point play from Brown stopped the run and gave the Lions a 48-38 lead. A tip in from Brown gave the Lions a 54-41 lead with 11:12 to go and forced a Tigers' timeout.
Four-straight points from Kinzer Lambert had the Lions with a 58-45 lead with 9:15 to go in the second. Hays got back to within eight (62-54) with six minutes to go, but a three from Cratit capped a 5-0 run to push the lead back to 13 (67-54).
A huge no-look pass from Carr to Brown with 1:14 to go made the score 71-58, and the Lions would hold on, making their free throws down the stretch.
Southern shot 46 percent from the field, including 61 percent in the first half. Southern will be back in action on Saturday, facing off with the number one seed and third-ranked Bearcats at 2:30 pm.
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