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WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The 16th-ranked Mules got career-highs from Kyle Wolf and Preston Brunz as they outlasted Southwest Baptist 71-67 on Senior Day on Saturday. Wolf scored a career-high 23 points and Brunz tied his career-high with 17 in the win.

The win was the sixth in a row for Central Missouri and gives the Mules a 22-4 overall mark and 13-4 in league play. The Mules are tied for first in the conference standings with two games to play.

The Mules jumped out to a 6-0 and held Southwest Baptist (11-15, 6-11 MIAA) without a field goal until the 16:39 mark. The Mules pushed the lead to seven at 15-8 with 13:08 to play in the first half, but the Bearcats responded with a 9-0 run to take a 17-15 lead at the 9:24 mark.

Daymond Cowlah's three-pointer with 6:39 left in the first half gave SBU a 20-18 lead, but back-to-back buckets from TJ White put UCM back in front 22-20. Menas Stephens tied the game with a bucket at the 3:38 mark, but the Mules closed the half on a 7-3 spurt, including a three-pointer from Kyle Wolf late in the half to lead 29-25 at the intermission.

David Gabrovsek scored the first bucket of the second half to pull SBU within two at 29-27, but the Mules went on a 13-2 run to open up a 42-29 lead with 16:01 to play in the game. Quinton Smith hit a pair of free throws to pull SBU within 11, but Wolf hit another three, one of his career-high six in the game, to give UCM the largest lead of the night at 45-31 with 14:42 to play.

The Bearcats slowly began to claw their way back in to the game. Afam Obukwelu hit a pair of foul shots and Gabrovsek scored on a layup to cut the UCM lead eight. A Brennen Hughes layup pushed the lead back to 10, but Derrick Stewart was fouled and made both shots to make it an eight-point game.

Wolf drained another three to push UCM in front by 11, but the Bearcats kept coming back. A 9-2 run cut the lead to four with 4:09 to play in the game. Rakeem Dickerson made two free throws to break the run and put the Mules back up six. Following a Finn Delany jumper, Wolf hit another triple and the Mules led by seven.

Preston Brunz calmly hit two free throws with 1;58 to play and Wolf hit a pair at the 1:07 mark to give the Mules a 66-55 lead. The Bearcats would get back to within four, but it was too little too late as the Mules got the victory.

Wolf and Brunz led three Mules in double figures as White added 10. The Mules were 21-of-47 from the field for 45 percent. They were 9-of-16 for 56 percent from three point range, but just 20-of-32 from the free throw line for 63 percent.

Stewart led SBU with 22 points, while Cowlah added 10. The Bearcats were 22-of-42 for 52 percent from the floor and 9-of-16 from three-point range. They made 14-of-17 at the charity stripe for 82 percent.

The Mules out-rebounded SBU 29-26, including 10 offensive boards. The Mules forced 13 SBU turnovers and turned those in to a 20-10 advantage in points off turnovers.

UCM is back in action on Wednesday night for the final home game of the regular season hosting Missouri Western at 7:30 p.m. The game can be heard live on 1450 KOKO, 98.5 The Bar and warrensburgradio.com with Greg Hassler on the call. A pay-per-view webcast is also available through the UCM Media Network and Stretch Internet. The webcast can be found at portal.stretchinternet.com/ucmo/