The Saint Mary men's basketball team beat Kansas Wesleyan 70-64 on Wednesday to improve to 3-1 in KCAC play. The Spires are 5-5 on the season. Saint Mary has now won three of their last four games including three straight KCAC wins.

The win didn't come easy as Saint Mary found themselves down 8-0 after the first three minutes of play. After a Saint Mary timeout, the Spires got their first bucket from Edvonte Copeland. Saint Mary took their first lead on a three pointer from Dillon Blain with 7:30 left in the first half. The Spires then used a 15-7 run to pull out to a 10 point lead and took a nine point lead into halftime.

After pushing the lead back out to ten early in the second half, the Saint Mary offense went quiet. Kansas Wesleyan used an 8-0 run to pull within two and would have the game tied by the 13:44 mark. The Coyotes took a 48-46 lead about a minute later. The second half would see six ties and three lead changes. Solid free throw shooting from the Spires down the stretch eventually earned them the six point victory.

Demetrius Cady led the Spires in points with 13. Edvonte Copeland added 11 points. Cady and Copeland had two steals each while Copeland added three assists and Cady finished with two. Brett Marsh scored 10 points and pulled down a team high six rebounds. Teyvon Lundy added eight points.

The Spires earned the win despite a cold shooting night. Saint Mary shot just 34% from the field and 31% from three but got to the free throw line 31 times and made 23 shots to shoot 74% in the win. Kansas Wesleyan got to the line just 15 times and shot 67%. Saint Mary held Kansas Wesleyan to just 15% shooting from three point range.

The men's basketball team will be back in action at home on Saturday at 4pm when they host Oklahoma Wesleyan. Oklahoma Wesleyan is 9-2 on the season and 3-1 in KCAC play.