Quincy, Ill. - The Hawks were back on the home court Saturday evening (Nov. 16), hosting another non-conference foe in the Lions of Missouri Southern State University.

After falling behind by nine in the first half, an explosive second 20 minutes, capped off by some late heroics in the form of a three-point play the hard way from El Sieger with 1.7 seconds remaining, gave the Hawks a hard-fought 71-68 win to move to 2-0 in Pepsi Arena. 

QU trailed by a point heading into the first media timeout but gained the advantage shortly after on a Sieger three at the 13:54 mark to lead 12-11. Quincy went on to maintain the lead for the next seven minutes, pressing the edge to as many as eight points on an Anthony McGhee jumper. 

MSSU regained the lead with about five and a half to play in the frame at 27-26, before going on a 14-6 run from there to take a 41-32 advantage into the break. 

Quincy wasn't able to chip away at the lead much for the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Lions maintained their hot shooting from the first 20 minutes, firing at 50% on the night as a team, still leading by double digits at 56-46 with nine and a half to play. 

Ethyn Brown got the QU comeback rolling, scoring eight-straight Hawks points to pull his side back within six at 60-54 before a Jake Hamilton layup and a pair of Sieger free throws found Quincy trailing by just a bucket at 60-58 with four minutes to go. 

Shortly after, a pair of Camren Kincaid free throws gave QU it's first lead in almost a half hour of game time, moving ahead 64-62 with 2:02 remaining. 

Layups from Logan Robbins and Hamilton matched three Lions scores to a 68-68 tie in the final minute, setting the stage for an old fashioned three-point play from Sieger with 1.7 remaining to put QU ahead for good at 71-68. 

Despite getting out-shot by almost 12% as a team, the Hawks came away with the win thanks to the small stuff; taking the rebounding battle by a 37-32 margin while committing just half as many fouls as Missouri Southern (11-22). QU made great use of the MSSU fouls, cashing in on 20-24 free ones from the charity stripe compared to 3-7 from the Lions. 

Brown led the Hawks in scoring for a second-straight game, this time putting up 15 with nine of those coming from the free throw line. Other double figure scorers included Hamilton with 13, Robbins with 12 and Sieger with 10. Hamilton also added four assist and six rebounds to pace the team. 

Next Up 

The Hawks are back on the road next week for a lone contest in Warrensburg, MO at the University of Central Missouri on Thursday (Nov. 21). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM from the Jerry M. Hughes Athletics Center.