WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Central Missouri Mules built a 15-point second half lead then withstood a late rally to beat Rockhurst 77-71 on Wednesday night at the UCM Multipurpose Building. With the win, the Mules improve to 3-0 in the early season.
Rockhurst (1-1) scored the first five points of the game, but an 11-2 run by the Mules gave them a four-point advantage about five minutes in. The Hawks went back in front by one on a layup from Malachi Nix, but a three-pointer from
Kyle Wolf and another from
Brad Woodson gave UCM a 19-14 lead at the 11:15 mark of the first half. A nix jumper was answered by another three from Woodson and UCM led by six at the midway point of the opening period.
Rockhurst whittled the lead back to one, but
Jakob Lowrance hit a three,
Spencer Reaves a jumper and
D'Marnier Cunningham threw down a dunk on successive possessions and UCM led 31-23 at the 6:07 mark. The lead see-sawed between three and six points for the next few minutes before Reaves made four free throws in the final minute of the half to give UCM a 42-33 lead at the intermission.
Rockhurst opened the second half on a 9-2 run to cut the UCM lead to a pair, but
Tereke Eckwood sunk two free throws and
Roosevelt Scott drained a three and the lead was quickly back to seven with 16:17 to play. After an RU jumper cut the lead to five, UCM scored 10 straight points to build a 59-44 lead with 12:05 to play in regulation.
The Hawks kept fighting back, however, using a 13-4 run to pull within six at 63-57 with 7:59 to play in the game. The Mules pushed the lead back to nine at 67-58, but a 10-3 run cut the UCM lead to 70-68 with just 2:56 to play. Woodson answered with five straight points to push the UCM lead to 75-68 at the 2:20 mark.
Rockhurst could get no closer than four points the rest of the way as the Mules held off the charge to move to 3-0 for the third straight season and give UCM its fifth straight win over the Hawks.
Reaves led three Mules in double figures with 16, incuding 12-of-13 at the free throw line. Woodson finished with 14 points, while
Marquiez Lawrence had nine points and 10 rebounds. UCM shot 41 percent from the floor, 22-of-54, and made 7-of-18 three-point attempts for 39 percent. UCM was 26-of-30 at the foul line for 87 percent.
The Mules out-rebounded Rockhurst 37-29 and had 16 second chance points.
Rockhurst shot 51 percent from the floor, 26-of-51, but made just 6-of-19 from beyond the arc for 32 percent. The Hawks were 13-of-19 at the free throw line for 68 percent. Nix led three Hawks in double figures with 15 points to go along with eight assists. Austin LeVan had 11 points and Adam Fatkin chipped in 10.
The Mules are back in action on Saturday night at Missouri S&T. Tip-off in Rolla is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live on 1450 KOKO, 98.5 The Bar and warrensburgradio.com with Greg Hassler on the call.
