By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri Western men's basketball team overcame a somewhat slow start and pulled away early in the second half, settling for an 83-71 win over Bendectine in exhibition play Friday at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
The Griffons got down 12-7 early, but went up 34-24 with 4:49 left in the first half and led by double digits for nearly the entire rest of the night.
Leading 43-29 at half, Missouri Western used a 16-3 run to lead 55-32 with 14:26 to play.
That's as big as Missouri Western's lead got all night. The Ravens scored 42 second half points, shooting 53.1% in the second half to chip away.
Missouri Western, however, stayed hot throughout the game, shooting 54.7% from the field through the whole 40 minutes, including a 10-of-20 effort from three.
The Griffons made 15-of-17 free throws, while Benedictine was just 0-for-1 at the stripe.
JaRon Thames led five Griffons in double figures with 15 points. Josh Book came off the bench to score 14 on 6-of-9 shooting. Julius Dixon scored 13 points and had a team-high nine rebounds.
Reese Glover totaled 11 points on three made triples and Matthew Schneider scored 10 off the bench on a pair of made threes.
Braden Belt led Benedictine in defeat with 17 points. Brycen LaRue scored 15. The Ravens knocked down 13 threes on 31 attempts.
The Griffon men have another exhibition on Sunday, October 29 at Truman State. Tip-off in that game is set for 3 p.m.