The Saints improve to 12-9 overall and 9-1 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) and remain tied for first place in the conference with Greenville College. MacMurray drops to 3-18 overall and 3-7 in the SLIAC.
The Highlanders dominated in the first half, outscoring Maryville 46-37. The Saints shot only 15-32 (.469) from the field and failed to hit a shot from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes. MacMurray on the other hand, was 19-35 (.543) from the field, including 6-11 (.545) from downtown.
At the start of the second half it looked as if the Saints would turn things around, but the Highlanders took their nine point halftime lead and extended it to 18 points with 13:09 remaining on the clock.
Maryville would not let the deficit go any further as they fought back to within two points with 10 minutes left to play. The momentum changed in favor of the Saints and they battled back and forth before taking control for good at the 1:50 mark.
Maryville would finish 33-66 (.500) from the field, 5-14 (.357) from behind the arc, and would win the battle on the boards, 35-29. They would also hit 27-36 (.750) from the charity stripe, while sending four of MacMurray's five starters to the bench with five fouls.
The Highlanders finished 34-62 (.548) from the field, 10-22 (.455) from three-point range and 12-20 (.600) from the free throw line.
Bash shot 7-12 (.583) from the floor and 10-14 (.714) from the charity stripe en route to his 24 points. Fellow junior Matt Damrell added 14 points on 4-8 (.500) shooting from the field and 6-8 (.750) from the line, while sophomore Ben Hebl added 14 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in the winning effort.
Also scoring in double figures for Maryville were sophomores Ryan Klein and Matt Regan with 12 and 11 points respectively. Regan also tallied a team-high four assists in the win.
MacMurray was led by Derek Suttles with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Zach Kowa added 20 points and three points, while Drew Bell and Tyler Meier chipped in with 14 and 13 points respectively.
The Saints will look to extend their win streak to six games when they host cross-town rival Webster University on Wednesday, February 18, in a 7 pm SLIAC matchup at Moloney Arena.