Emporia, KS. - The Missouri Western men to Emporia State 76-64 Thursday night in White Auditorium.  

The Griffons (8-7, 4-3 MIAA) were led in scoring by Will Eames with his second-straight 20-point performance.  Q Mays added 16 points (7-22 FG), 8 rebounds and 9 assists.  Mays and Eames were the only two Griffons in double figures.

Emporia's Tray Buchanan, the MIAA's leading scorer, led the Hornets with 33 points (9-19 FG). 

The first-half was a back-and-forth, high-scoring affair with both teams trading blows in the game's first 20-minutes.  Eames scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half, and the Griffons went to the locker room trailing 43-40.  

The Hornets took control from there, opening the half on a 21-7 run and pushed their lead to as many as 19 points (69-50) with 8:05 remaining in the game.

The Griffons as a team shot 39.7% from the field.  Emporia shot 42% for the game, going 11-30 from 3-point range.

With the loss, the Griffons fall to 8-6 overall and 4-3 in The MIAA.  They have lost 3 straight games.  Emporia improves to 12-3 overall and 7-2 in conference play.

MWSU returns to action on Saturday, January 8th at Washburn.