By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
KANSAS CITY - Missouri Western men's basketball trailed for only 15 seconds and dominated on the glass in a 62-56 win over Missouri Southern in the first round of the MIAA tournament in Kansas City Wednesday.
The No. 9 seed Griffons (17-12, 11-12 MIAA) held Southern to just 36.8% shooting (21-of-57) from the field and just 4-of-24 from three.
Missouri Western was dominant in rebounding throughout, outrebounding the Lions 43-29, including 14-8 on the offensive glass.
The Griffons scored 17 second chance points off of those offensive boards.
JaRon Thames came to life, scoring 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half. Thames also had nine rebounds.
Taye Fields notched his third straight double-double and his ninth of the season with 15 points and 15 boards. Julius Dixon added eight points on two made threes.
Vinson Sigmon Jr. led Missouri Southern (13-16, 11-12 MIAA) with 18 points. The Lions end their season, having lost their last four games in a row.
Missouri Western men's basketball has now won its first-round MIAA tournament game for the third time in four seasons.
The Griffons advance to the quarterfinals, where they'll see No. 1 seed Northwest Missouri State (24-4, 20-2 MIAA) on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
The game is on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com, KFEQ app) with coverage starting at 5:30.
Northwest, who won the MIAA regular season title for an 11th straight year this year, is going for its eighth MIAA tournament championship in the last nine seasons.
Northwest and Western split their regular season series this year. The Griffons beat the Bearcats in St. Joseph on Jan. 13, 76-70.
Northwest got Western back in Maryville on Feb. 24, 65-57.
Assistant coach Jon Hood postgame
Full audio broadcast
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.