Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Senior guard Taevaunn Prince had a double double and Missouri Southern State used a big first half run to eliminate Nebraska Kearney, 97-88, from the MIAA Tournament Thursday night in Kansas City, Mo.

The third-seeded Lions improve to 19-10 and advance to Saturday's semifinal game against defending national champion Central Missouri. UNK ends the season at 18-10.

Back in early December, the Lopers were hot early and often in getting out to a 51-25 halftime lead over the Lions. UNK went on to win 93-73, the only regular season meeting between the two.

MSSU basically flipped the script tonight as they closed the first half on a 24-7 run to lead 52-34 at the intermission. During a seven-minute stretch, the Lions were 9 of 11 from the field (1 of 1 threes) and 5 of 5 at the line.

Despite some serious foul trouble and a brief stretch minus junior post Ethan Brozek (Norfolk Catholic H.S.) due to an ailment, the Lopers made a second half run, using a 22-11 spurt to make the score 72-65 with 10:11 left. However, Southern stretched its lead back to 17 points but UNK still didn't go way.

Brozek, who entered the game 1 of 6 in his career from behind the arc, hit back-to-back threes and then senior Ben Petersen (Minden) knocked down a triple to make it 93-86 at the 1:20 mark. Like Brozek, that was Petersen's third career three.

Southern ended the comeback attempt by hitting its final four free throws to finish 33 of 34 at the line.  

They came in as the third best free throw shooting team in the MIAA at 73.7%.

"We came down here with the idea of taking a good season and turning into a great one if we could make a run," said co-head coach Tom Kropp. "They played extremely well in the first half. We did come out and battle in the second half but we had dug ourselves such a big hole."

A transfer from South Dakota State, Prince had 26 points (13 of 13 FT's), 16 rebounds (14 defensive) and three assists with four others reaching double figures. The Lions cooled off to 47% shooting but out rebounded Kearney by a 45-30 margin.

Coming back from his injury, Brozek's late flourish allowed him to score a career-high 35 points. Before fouling out, he was 13 of 21 from the field (2 of 2 threes) and 7 of 8 at the line while pulling down 13 rebounds (four offensive). This marked Brozek's team-leading eight double double of the winter.

"Ethan showed a lot of courage by coming back. They taped him up but he was still hurting," said Kropp. "For him to be like (All-Americans) Eric Strand or Nick Branting, he needs to add a perimeter game and he hit some of those shots tonight, especially at the end."

Finally, junior forward Connor Beranek (12), freshman Ty Danielson (11) and sophomore Kevin Dineen (10) combined for 33 points. By going 3 of 4 from behind the arc, Dineen (Creighton Prep H.S.) had a season-high point total.

Besides Petersen, UNK's other senior this season was guard Davion Pearson (Las Vegas, Nev.).