By Jim Henry

jhenry@joplinglobe.com

Missouri Southern’s MIAA basketball schedule doesn’t start for another five days.

But an athletic and talented Mid-America Christian squad gave the Lions an MIAA-like test on Friday night, and the Lions passed the exam with an 83-77 victory Friday night in the Freeman Sports Medicine/Chris Tucker Memorial Classic.

The Lions (4-0) never trailed and extended a 38-29 halftime advantage to 47-33 four minutes into the second half. But the Evangels (4-3), who lost an exhibition game 74-69 at TCU, battled back as Nathan Pratt nailed three 3-pointers — one from each baseline and another from the right wing — in a two-minute span to cut the margin to 53-49 with 12:30 left.

MACU continued its rally and pulled within one point three times, the last time at 65-64 on Brandon Williams’ two free throws with 5:56 left.

Missouri Southern then scored eight unanswered points — two free throws by Jason Adams, a one-handed slam by Adams off a Skyler Bowlin feed, two Keane Thomann free throws and a steal and layup by Bowlin — for a 73-64 lead with 4:37 remaining.

The Lions protected their lead by converting 6-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes. The Evangels helped the Lions by missing 5-of-6 charities in just over a minute.

“We needed a game like this,” Lions head coach Robert Corn said. “I felt like we had them on the ropes three or four times, but they hit a shot when we had to, and we couldn’t finish some plays when we needed to.

“But this was a game where we had to get a defensive stop and we had to step to the line and make free throws. We did that tonight. Conference season is next week, and we needed to be pushed where we had to come up with some key plays. Hopefully this game will prove beneficial next week.”

Adams, sophomore forward from Carthage, topped the Lions with 16 points, 10 in the second half. Senior forward DaRell Crittendon, who sat much of the second half with four fouls, had 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals, and Bowlin collected 11 points, a career-high nine assists and four steals.

“They are a good team,” Bowlin said, “but to be honest, I don’t feel like we played exceptionally well. We played well at times, but we never got into a rhythm offensively. Maybe they had something to do with that.”

Bowlin missed the front end of a two-shot foul with 33 seconds remaining, his first miss this season in 22 attempts.

“I was so upset,” he said. “I don’t know how many it was, but I hadn’t missed the whole season. It felt good ... just rolled in and out. At least we were up a little bit, and it didn’t hurt us bad.”

Charlie Shorter, 6-foot sophomore guard, also hit three treys and captured game honors with 17 points for the Evangels. Williams and Nosa Amadasun added 13 points apiece.