BOLIVAR - Jaylon Smith scored a career-high 33 points and Anthony Virdure added 22 points to lead the Lincoln Blue Tigers to an 83-71 season-opening win against the Mary Marauders on Friday at the Southwest Baptist Classic.
Lincoln trailed Mary for most of the first half, falling behind by as many as eight points (30-22) with six minutes to play before half. The Blue Tigers rallied and briefly took the lead with the help of a 9-0 run, but Mary scored three points in the final 25 seconds to take a 33-31 lead into halftime.
Lincoln took the lead for good when Virdure made a layup with just under 10 minutes to play in the game. The Blue Tigers stretched their lead to as many as 14 points in the final minute of the game.
The Blue Tigers shot 54.1 percent from the field in the second half, scoring 52 points after the break. Smith scored 21 of his game-high 33 points after the break.
Smith finished the game shooting 6-of-10 from 3-point range and was 13-of-27 from the field. The senior guard also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Virdure shot 8-of-17 from the field and had a team-high four assists.
Maurice Mason had nine points and five rebounds off the bench for Lincoln and Rod Ollison finished with eight points. Richie Lewis finished with seven points and six rebounds.
Lincoln (1-0) will face Minnesota-Crookston at 1:30 p.m. today on the second and final day of the SBU Classic.
Minnesota-Crookston defeated Southwest Baptist 73-64 on Friday.