BOLIVAR, Mo. – Aaron Emmanuel’s layup with six seconds remaining was the exclamation point on an impressive second half comeback that gave the Missouri Western men’s basketball team a 65-64 win at Southwest Baptist. The bucket gave the Griffons their first lead of the game and wiped out a Southwest Baptist lead that had grown to as many as 18 points.

Emmanuel’s layup came on the heels of an unconventional Southwest Baptist turnover with 14 seconds remaining. Coming out of a timeout, Southwest Baptist was set to inbound the ball near the Griffon bench but the ball went off of Griffon head coach Brett Weiberg while he was in his coaching box, giving Missouri Western possession of the ball with 11 seconds left.

With 19:02 left in the game, SBU had built an 18-point lead. Over the next 10 minutes, the Griffons used a 25-9 run to pull within two. After some back and forth between the two that never saw the SBU lead stretch farther than seven over the final nine minutes, a Cole Clearman three with 1:11 left pulled the Griffons within one and setup Emmanuel’s layup.

Cortrez Colbert and Kevin Thomas each scored 11 for the Griffons with Dareon Jones adding 10. Defensively, the Griffons held SBU to just eight field goals in the second half on 20 attempts. The win improved Missouri Western to 8-8 overall and 4-5 in the MIAA. The win also gave the Griffons their first win in Bolivar since 2003, snapping a nine-game losing streak. They’ll have a week off before hosting Missouri Southern on Jan. 24.

— MWSU Sports Information —