Box Score Kearney, Neb. – The Missouri Southern State Lions went 26 of 35 at the line and had a plus 17 rebounding margin to beat Nebraska-Kearney, 89-71, Saturday afternoon in Joplin.

MSSU is now 6-2 (2-0) while UNK falls to 6-3 (1-1) and sees a four-game winning streak come to an end.

These teams have met each of the past three years in the MIAA Tournament. After losing to the Lions in Kansas City in 2014 and 2015, the Lopers returned the favor last year. UNK also swept the regular season series.

To stop a three-game losing streak to Kearney, Mo Southern roared out to a 22-5 lead not even six minutes into the action. The Lopers came back a bit, trailing 49-38 at the break, but never got the deficit under double digits the rest of the way.

"They were mentally ready to go and their effort showed it. We just came out flat and didn't answer the bell," said Loper head coach Kevin Lofton. "We had stretches where the kids fought back and made it a bit interesting. But, sometimes you dig a hole and can't get out of it and that was the case today"

Six-eight, 220 pound junior forward LJ Ross paced MSSU with 10 points and 19 rebounds (six offensive). Fellow starter JJ Cratit had 16 points and six rebounds with 5-7 guard CJ Carr at a team-high 20 points, two assists, two steals and two boards.

"The bright spot for us was (true freshman) AJ Jackson. He gave us some energy, fought and scraped a little bit," said Lofton. "That (rebounding) was a bad area for us today. Hats off to them; they have some good, athletic strong kids around the basket. When it came off the rim, they wanted it really bad."

Missouri Southern used 13 offensive boards to score 18 second chance points. Coming into the week shooting 76 percent at the line, MSSU saw Ross go 8 of 14 at the charity stripe with six others making at least two freebies.

Out rebounded 46-29, UNK had six different players whistled for three fouls. The Lopers shot 44 percent (24 of 55) from the field and made 19 of 29 free throws.

Individually, York junior guard Ty Danielson scored a game-high 21 points by going 7 of 10 at the line and 6 of 9 (2 of 3 threes) from the field. The total was just three shy of his career high effort, set last March in the MIAA Tournament against Lincoln.

Before leaving with an injury, Minnesota sophomore guard Isaiah McKay had 16 points in 28 minutes with Chicago junior guard Yashua Trent having 10 points in 19 minutes. Finally, Iowa junior forward Trey Lansman was held to two points; he came into today with 991 career points.

UNK hosts Emporia State and Washburn next week.