The No. 11 Benedictine Men’s Basketball team took their third straight game out of the holiday break on Saturday as they used 14 3-pointers to earn a 81-64 win over the MNU Pioneers.
For Benedictine (14-3, 3-2 Heart), the 14 3-pointers set a new single-game team high in the Heart for made 3-pointers while the 77.8 percent effort also set a new conference single-game high.
MNU (3-11, 2-3 Heart) fell behind quickly against the Ravens as Benedictine started the game on a 11-0 run.
The Pioneers started to knock down their shots offensive while the Ravens went cold, which allowed MNU to close within four point.
Benedictine answered with another run, this time a 15-4 run that extended their advantage to as much as 13 before MNU closed out the half outscoring the Ravens 19-11 to send the game into halftime at 42-37 Ravens.
The second half saw two early ties but MNU was never able to grab the lead.
After the second tie, the Ravens went on a 14-2 run that pushed their lead back to 12 points.
MNU pulled within eight points minutes late but after John Harris Jr. pushed the Ravens lead back to 14 points, Benedictine never lead by less than 14 over the rest of the game.
Harris Jr. and Brett Fisher finished with 15 points each. Fisher helped anchor the Ravens night from beyond the 3-point arc as he finished with five 3-pointers.
Jallen Messersmith and Jake Schannuth each added 12 points. Schannuth went 4 for 4 from beyond the arc while Messersmith converted 5 of 7 from the floor. Messersmith also led the Ravens with eight rebounds and tallied five blocks defensively. It was the second time this season that Messersmith tallied five blocks, the first time was against Avila University back on Dec. 6.
Benedictine finished with a 28-16 advantage in points in the paint and were also able to capitalize on 15 Pioneers turnovers as the Ravens finished the game with a 13-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Ravens hit the road on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. game in Lamoni, Iowa, against Graceland University.
Graceland fell 88-71 to Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. Evangel remained in first place in the Heart as they moved to 4-0 a game and a half ahead of the Ravens who moved into tie third place with the win.
— BC Sports Information —