• Adobe Acrobat .PDF file
• Microsoft Word .DOC file

---

Semi-Final Game #2 South-Central Regional
Central Missouri 80
Midwestern State 72

Alex Moosman (22) shoots for one of his five three-point field goals

The sixth ranked University of Central Missouri Mules drilled 13 three-pointers and advanced to the regional title game on the hands of an 80-72 win over No. 21 Midwestern State on Sunday night.

Top-seeded Central Missouri (28-4) jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the first five minutes thanks to a couple threes by junior guard Alex Moosmann. It was only the start of a big night for Moosmann, who scored a career-high 25 points, and finished with five threes.

Midwestern State didn’t panic and came back to take a 16-15 lead on a couple charity tosses from Anthony Moore with 10:10 to play. The advantage was short lived though. Central Missouri took the lead back on a three by senior guard De’Andre Byrd with 8:53 left. After the Mustangs tied it, Moosmann answered with another three to put the Mules ahead for the rest of the night at the 7:50 mark. Central Missouri stretched it to eight with 1:58 left on a three by senior guard Joe Young, and went into the break up 37-29.

Moosmann and Tremaine Luellen led UCM with 12, and 10 at the half, respectively. The Mules hit 9-of-16 threes in the period, while MSU was held to 34.6 percent from the floor. Trajinski Bigsby had 10 in the period for the Mustangs, who stayed close thanks to a 20-13 rebound advantage.

The second stanza started with the Mules pushing it to double-digits In the first two minutes. The advantage hovered around 10-12 points until UCM pushed it to 16 on a three by Young with 5:30 left.

Central Missouri stayed in control despite a flurry of five threes in the final 1:18 by MSU senior guard Nolan Richardson. He could only get the Mustangs within six with nine seconds remaining, but the Mules hit 12-of-14 from the line during the stretch to seal the win.

The Mules hit 50 percent of their shots in the final half, while holding MSU to 42 percent, and only 39 percent for the game.

Moosmann led five Central Missouri players in double-figures as Joe Young finished with 17, De'Andre Byrd (pictured at left) had 12 points and dished out seven assists, while Tremaine Luellen and Sanijay Watts also had a dozen.

Richardson, who had been held in check most of the night, finished with 24 points (15 in last 1:18) to lead the Mustangs, while Moore had 13 and Grigsby tallied 12.

Central Missouri will face the second-seeded Southwest Baptist Bearcats on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Multipurpose Building for the South Central Region Championship.

(Photo's by Dave Kopp)
See more photo's by Dave Kopp