The Lions bounced back from a disappointing showing at Fort Hays State with their first sweep at Washburn since 1978.

The men, led by 20 points and 10 boards from junior forward Vincent Ateba, never trailed in their 82-76 victory. With the win, the Lions move into a tie for second place in the conference with Fort Hays State.

On Saturday, they will take on Truman State for the second time this season. In the first meeting in Kirksville, the Lions came away with a 70-59 win. Junior shooting guard Tony Webb led the Lions with 18 points in that victory. The Bulldogs were led by star player Nick Certa with 20 in the loss.

“That is not the same Truman team that we played earlier,” said Matt Monroe in a cell phone conversation from Topeka.

The Bulldogs are 4-14 on the season but, one of those victories was a 20 point win over first place Southwest Baptist. When Truman gets on a roll they are very tough to stop. Certa is one of the best scorers in the MIAA and he can score in a number of ways.

Webb started the season on fire but he just recently came out of a bad shooting streak with a good showing on Wednesday. Webb finished 6-10 from the floor and dropped in 15 points.

The women won a game in Topeka for the first time since 1995 on Wednesday with a 69-61 decision over the Washburn Lady Blues. Senior forward Tynesha Pierce led four Lions in double figures with 17.

The win was important for the Lions for two big reasons. The first is that it pushed their conference record (5-4) above .500 and put them in the thick of things in the conference race. The second and more important reason is that the first regional rankings which came out on Wednesday and the Lions were ranked sixth, the Lady Blues were second.

That makes Saturday’s game all that much more important as a loss to Truman would offset the win over Washburn in the eyes of the regional committee. Truman is led by senior Georgia Mueller. Mueller is in the top three in the conference in both scoring and rebounding.

This is the first of a three game homestand, and a very important one at that, for both teams. After Truman on Saturday, the Southern will host Washburn on Wednesday and then play host to Fort Hays State the following Saturday.

The Southern women will tip things off on Saturday at 1 p.m. with the men hitting the court at 3 p.m.