Southern (9-14, 4-10 MIAA) now falls into a four-way tie for the final two spots in the MIAA Tournament with Fort Hays, Washburn and  Missouri Western. Western won at home tonight over Fort Hays. Each team in the league has a legitimate chance to make the post season tournament at this point with only Central Missouri, Emporia State and Northwest Missouri clinching a spot already.

The Lions jumped ahead 4-3 after a dunk from TJ Britton (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) just two minutes into the game. Southern took the lead again  as a layup from Deonte Cox (St. Louis, Mo.) made the score 10-8 with 16 minutes to go. That would be the last lead Southern had as Southwest Baptist had leads as large as 14 (39-25) in the first half. Southern closed the first half, however, on a 14-6 run to cut the deficit to six at the break.

Britton and Ed Miles (Dallas, Texas) had 12 and 10 points at the half, but SBU's (14-9, 8-6 MIAA) Jemison had 18 points on 6-7 shooting from long range.

Southern cut the lead to one (47-46) after a jumper from Miles shortly into the second half. SBU led by 17 (79-62) at the seven minute mark and the Lions could only get as close as seven.

Miles had a career high 23 points tonight on 8-14 shooting from the field and 2-3 from long range. He was 5-6 from the free throw line and pulled down nine rebounds. Britton had 18 points and six boards, while Cox scored 14 and added ten rebounds. Stanley Titsworth (Muskogee, Okla.) scored ten.

Jemison finished with 24 points, while Jared Young scored 21. The Bearcats made 16 threes, going 49 percent from long range. They shot 52 percent from the field.

Southern out rebounded SBU 43-38, but made just 50 percent of its free throws. The Lions scored 20 points off of 14 SBU turnovers and shot 44 percent from the floor.

Southern will be on the road for its next game, traveling to Central Missouri for a 7:30 pm tip off on Wednesday, February 14.