ALLIANCE, Ohio -- The Mount Union men's basketball team defeated Capital 78-58 in Ohio Athletic Conference play Saturday afternoon at Timken Gymnasium.

The Purple Raiders improve to 10-3 overall and 5-1 in the OAC while the loss drops Capital to 7-6 overall and 3-3 in the OAC.

Mount Union was led by senior Nathan Bower-Malone (Stow) with a season-high 30 points, sophomore Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) finished with 14 points and Logan Hill (Massillon / Jackson) came off the bench with 10.

Capital was led by Cameron Caldwell with 18 points.

Gurley hit two threes getting Mount Union out to a 10-3 lead in the first four minutes of the game. Capital worked its way back and took a 24-23 lead off two free throws from Cameron Caldwell. Senior Tanner Slack (New Concord / John Glenn) hit a three-pointer to put the Raiders back in the lead 26-23 with 5:57 left in the first half. Mount Union ended the first half on a 20-2 run with a half court buzzer beater by senior D'Vontay Friga (Cuyahoga Falls) and Bower-Malone scoring seven of his 15 first-half points in that run.

Mount Union started the second half on a 7-2 run started by another slack three-ball. The Raiders got their biggest lead of the day when Bower-Malone made a jump shot pushing the lead out to 55-32 with 16:29 remaining. Capital got within nine points with 10:42 left when Ganiyu Yahaya hit a three-pointer. Bower-Malone once again scored seven of his 15 second half points on a 15-3 run that pushed Mount Union's lead back out to 21. Mount Union would hit a 21 point lead once again with 1:30 left in the game off a bucket by junior Julian Berry (Giard).

Mount Union takes to the road to face OAC opponent Muskingum Wednesday Jan. 15 at 7 p.m.