The Blackburn College Men's Basketball Team started strong but MacMurray College took over late in the second half on the way to  63-48 victory in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Thursday night in Carlinville.

The Beavers led 19-17 with 6:04 to play in the first half before the Highlanders closed out the first half with a 19-2 run to take a 36-21 halftime lead. MacMurray stretched the lead to 21 points in the second half before the Beavers closed the gap to 14 on back to back 3-pointers by Lucas Rochkes and Ira Williams to make the score 57-43 with 7:24 remaining.  The Beavers were not able to get closer than 13 the rest of the way in falling to 1-13 on the year and 1-4 in SLIAC play.  MacMurray is now 7-6 and 4-1.

Williams led the Beavers with 10 points while Diarra Cropper led in rebounding with six.

Blackburn shot 39 percent on 18 of 47 shooting but committed 19 turnovers which led to 26 points off turnovers for MacMurray.

Blackburn will host Spalding University this Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.