ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Mount Union men's basketball team, ranked No. 14 in the nation, led wire-to-wire to extend its win streak to nine games with an 85-63 victory against Muskingum in an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup Wednesday at the MAAC.

Senior Nathan Bower-Malone (Stow) had 25 points and nine rebounds and sophomore Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) had 18 points as the Purple Raiders are now 17-3 overall and remain in first place in the OAC at 12-1. Mount Union has two other double digit scorers as junior Logan Hill (Massillon / Jackson) had 15 and senior D'Vontay Friga (Cuyahoga Falls) had 13.

Muskingum (8-12, 3-10 OAC) got 28 points from Marcus Dempsey but that was two below his average as the nation's second leading scorer. 

Mount Union ran out to a 12-5 lead in the game's opening five minutes with Bower-Malone and Friga each scoring five points. The Raiders would eventually spread the lead out to 13 points, 32-19, when Friga hit a jumper with 7:30 left before halftime as Mount Union led 43-31 at the break.

Mount Union started the second half on a 7-0 run to push the lead out to 19 points, 50-31. A Gurley steal and layup gave Mount Union its biggest lead of the night, 84-57 with 3:31 to play. 

The Raiders stay home to host Otterbein Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at the MAAC.