CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Mount St. Joseph men's basketball team moved over .500 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a 75-71 win over the Manchester Spartans on Saturday.
The early portion of the game was tight as the teams exchanged leads five times through the first 6:10 of action. A tip-in from
Braden Miller gave the Lions the 9-8 lead at the 13:50 mark, they would go on to lead most of the first half. After Manchester regained the lead with 4:47 to play the rest of the first half would be tight. The Lions would hold the Spartans scoreless over the final 3:11 of the half, and carried a four point lead into the break.
In the second half the Lions never trailed, pushing their lead to a game-high 11 points on a offensive rebound and putback by
Matthew Menninger. Manchester would not go away though, eventually cutting the Mount's lead to just one with 1:38 to go. The Mount struggled at the free throw line going 1-of-3 over the next couple of possessions. Defensively though they were able to keep the Spartans off the board. A layup from
Luke Collinsworth pushed the Lions lead back to four with just :15 seconds to play, Manchester instantly answered, but Menninger buried a couple of free throws with :5 seconds to play to put the game on ice.
Matthew Menninger led the way for the Lions with a 25-point, 6-rebound, 2-block stat line. Collinsworth was the lone other Lions in double-figures, scoring 10-points to go along with a game-high 8 rebounds.
UP NEXT:
The Lions will hit the road on Wednesday, heading to Terre Haute to take on the HCAC leading Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers. The Fightin' Engineers are currently unbeaten in HCAC play.
