ST. LOUIS, Missouri - The Lyon College Scots fell behind early and lost to the Missouri Baptist Spartans at Carl & Deloris Petty SRC in St. Louis, 88-73.

Trenton Bell led the Scots (1-2, 0-1) with 21 points. Israel Palmer scored 15 points, Nikola SaSaroga had 11 points, Delvonte McCloud hit for 10 in the loss.

Lyon College shot 41.7 percent from the field, made 9-of-20 free throws and hit 70 percent from the free throw line 14-of-20. The Scots had 22 points in the paint, 14 points off of Missouri Baptist turnovers, five second chance points, six fast break points and got 25 points from the bench players.

Tyrell Hill led Missouri Baptist with 23 points, Brendon Hardy had 15 and Nico Hill scored 11. 

Lyon College came out with a 4-0 lead on baskets by Hill and SaSaroga. Two McCloud free throws made it a 6-2 advantage, but a three-pointer and a layup put the Spartans in front. Two more free throws from McCloud gave the Scots their last lead of the game, 8-7 with 14:57 to go in the first half. Four minutes later, Missouri Baptist led 20-8. 
Gavin Brunson hit a three-pointer, Bell knocked down a three and Palmer put in a layup to keep Lyon College close 24-16. The Spartans went back up by 14 points before Bell, SaSaroga and Hill scored for the Scots. Two free throws from SaSaroga with 15 seconds to go in the half cut the Missouri Baptist lead to eight points, 40-32.

With 14:59 to go in the game, Lyon College had cut the Spartans lead down to three points, 48-45, on two three-pointers from McCloud and four straight free throws from Palmer. The Scots had a chance to tie the game, but missed a shot. Missouri Baptist stretched out the lead to eight points, but the Scots cut it to four, 57-53 with 9:53 to go on two free throws from SaSaroga. An 11-2 run by the Spartans opened up a 12-point advantage and from there, Missouri Baptist grew it to a 20-point margin in the final two minutes.