WOOSTER, Ohio -- The Mount Union men's basketball team stopped a two-game slide in a big way with an 81-67 win at No. 16 in the nation Wooster Wednesday at Timken Gymnasium in Wooster.

The Purple Raiders (3-2), who had not lost back-to-back games in almost two years, led for over 39 minutes to hand the Fighting Scots (3-1) their first loss of the season.

Nathan Bower-Malone (Stow) had a game-high 22 points along with six rebounds to lead four Mount Union players in double figures.

Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) had 14, Tanner Slack (New Concord / John Glenn) had 11 and D'Vontay Friga (Cuyahoga Falls) came off the bench with 10 for the Raiders.

Every starter cracked the scoring column as Moung Union opened up a 15-4 lead to start the game. Friga scored all 10 of his points in a five minute span in the first half as the Raiders stretched the lead to 30-16. Wooster rallied to within three points with just over three minutes left in half but an 8-3 Mount Union run with Bower-Malone and Logan Hill (Massillon / Massillon Jackson) scoring four points each gave the Raiders a 38-30 lead at halftime.

Wooster, which got 21 from Danyon Hempy and 20 from Dontae Williams, got as close as four points, 54-50 with 9:51 to play but a Gurley three-pointer and a Slack dunk pushed the lead back up to nine and put the game away for Mount Union.

The Raiders next play Wed., Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at John Carroll in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener in University Heights.