Missouri Military Academy basketball has character at its core, and its three seniors prove it.

MMA honored Togbileg Boldbaatar, Bryce McIlwain and Mateo Eaton prior to the Colonels defeating Lighthouse Preparatory on Thursday at home for Senior Night. Boldbataar finished with 24 points and six 3-pointers to end MMA’s seven-game losing streak.

Head coach Gil Hooker said, outside of two bad games at the start of the season, Boldbaatar has been a consistent scoring force for MMA (4-13). The senior is the team’s third-leading scorer right now, but based on how Boldbaatar shot the ball on Thursday and has been doing recently, Hooker wouldn’t be surprised if he rises up the team’s scoring ranks. 

MMA vs Lighthouse Photo Gallery

“Boldbaatar is at 10 (points per game) because he had those bad games,” Hooker said. “Now he’s catching up. I think eventually, in these last 10 games, he’s going to end up as our leading scorer with his elite scoring from 3-point territory, his pull-up game, his free-throw making and his layup ability.”

Boldbaatar was feeling it in the third quarter by hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 14 points in the eight minutes. That infusion of offense was needed to help MMA gain separation after leading Lighthouse 25-17 at halftime. The Colonels had a 46-30 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“I always tell them to feed the man that’s hot,” Hooker said. “It doesn’t matter who scores. It matters if we score. That’s my motto. We all score if someone scores.”

MMA beat Lighthouse 81-45 earlier in the season so Hooker said the team was familiar with the opponent. There was some difference, however, as Lighthouse had five players available on Thursday. 

“We knew they were limited with players so I wanted to have a higher tempo offense,” Hooker said. “I wanted to push the ball a little bit. We’re still learning how to play basketball so I had to slow things down a little bit. Once we settled in the second half, that’s when we started to gain separation in points.”

Kennedy Barchigei followed Boldbaatar with 12 points, McIlwain had eight points and 11 rebounds, and Levi Foster added eight points. 

The senior cadets each have ranks in the academy like Boldbaatar being Bravo Company XO, and Eaton being Operations Officer. McIlwain is Charlie Company First Sergeant, which Hooker said makes him one of the top cadets at the academy. Hooker said it is nice to have someone with McIlwain’s respect as a leader on the court, and he earns all of that respect with how he acts on the court.

“He’s our hot energy guy,” Hooker said. “He can play all five positions — all the guard positions and he can play big. If I need discipline from the team, I can go to him and he helps me out in that department as well. He gets upset when I pull him out of the game, but that’s being a natural competitor.”

The game tipped off in an irregular way as Eaton, who hasn’t played all season because of an ACL injury he sustained during soccer season, started for the Colonels and scored their first basket following Lighthouse’s easy layup. Both teams agreed to the moment of sportsmanship to give Eaton a Senior Night memory. Eaton did miss a jumper at the corner of the lane but rebounded his miss and then put in the second-chance bucket. 

Hooker said Eaton was such a big part of last season’s 11-13 team to fall just three wins shy of the school record. Eaton won a 3-point contest at a tournament at Calvary Lutheran in Jefferson City and was a clutch shooter during games for MMA along with being a good ball handler.

“He was one the most special parts of it so I wanted to do something special for him tonight,” Hooker said. “I talked to their team, and they said they would love to participate. If he was on our team this year, our team would be a lot better because he can run the point guard position and put Barchigei in his natural shooting guard position.”