Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
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Saint Louis, Missouri 63141-8698
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For Immediate Release

RE: Spartan Basketball Claims AMC Championship

Spartan Basketball Claims AMC Championship

March 9, 2005

The MBU Men’s basketball team claimed the American Midwest Conference Championship Tuesday with an 85-64 victory over rival and third-ranked McKendree College. The victory improves the Spartans season record to 24-8 and provides MBU an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship in Kansas City next week. This win, the third trump over McKendree this season, affords the Spartans the boast of being both regular season AMC champions and conference tournament champions.

The Spartans had an early lead that was never challenged throughout both halves. Leading 44-22 at the half, the Spartans dominated the boards out rebounding the Bearcats 52-32. The lead during the second half increased to a high of 27 points, the Spartans matching a late point surge by McKendree.

MBU’s Ryan Edwards led scorers with a game high 24 points. Frank Penn followed with 18 points and Jason Kaplan chipped in 12 for the Spartans. Shawn Byrne led McKendree with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Penn led all rebounders with 16 caroms. MBU shot 52% from the floor and 46% from the three-point arc.

Missouri Baptist University also boasts of four first team All Conference recipients. Ryan Edwards, Jason Kaplan, Frank Penn, and Joe Rothweiler were all named AMC First Team.

Missouri Baptist University’s, Tony Tompkins, was named the American Midwest Conference Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.

The Spartans ended their regular season at the sixteenth position in the national NAIA Division 1 rankings. This will be the second consecutive year the Spartans will participate in the national tournament and the experienced team is vying against 31 other leading NAIA teams.

The championship win over McKendree sends the Bearcats to a season end and affords Columbia College the conditional qualification. MBU bested second-ranked Columbia both times they met in conference play.

The single-elimination NAIA tournament runs March 16-22 in Kansas City. The official tournament website is http://www.naiahoopskc.org/

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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.

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