In a makeup of a game twice postponed by snow, the Muhlenberg men’s basketball team used a blizzard of scoring by its frontcourt to keep its Centennial Conference playoff hopes alive with an 81-59 home win against McDaniel.

The Mules (13-10, 8-8) had flurries at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second to build a lead of as much as 39 points. With two games remaining in the regular season,

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UP TO 17th The Muhlenberg women’s basketball team moved up from 22nd to 17th in the D3hoops.com national top-25 poll. Click here for the complete poll.

Muhlenberg is tied with Haverford for the fifth and final CC playoff spot. The Mules are at Dickinson on Wednesday before returning home to play first-place Ursinus in Saturday’s regular-season finale. The Fords have away games at Ursinus and archrival Swarthmore.

Starting forwards Jimmy O’Brien and Tom Scott combined with center Jeff Stewart to score 48 points and shoot 71 percent (22-of-31) from the field. They scored Muhlenberg’s first 16 points of the game.

Meanwhile, the Mule defense did a nice job blanketing the backcourt that was so damaging in the Green Terror’s 80-72 win a month ago. McDaniel’s two starting guards combined for 37 points in the last

The Mules broke a 4-4 tie and took the lead for good with six straight points that included this reverse layup by O’Brien ...

meeting but managed just 18 this time around.

Ahead 14-10 seven-and-a-half minutes into the game, Muhlenberg got a spark from junior Brandon Mefford to begin to pull away. After Stewart missed the second of two free throws, Mefford snagged the offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to begin a possession that ended with a Stewart layup.

The next time down the court, Mefford tapped a rebound back to Chris Huber for a jumper.

A three-pointer from the corner by junior Chris Pothering gave the

... and this dunk by Stewart.

Mules its first double-digit lead, at 21-10, and after a pair of Green Terror (8-15, 6-10) hoops, Mefford drove in for a layup to make the score 23-14.

Muhlenberg led by 12 points with 2:30 on the clock before closing the half on a 12-2 run, including a three-pointer by Huber with time winding down, to take a 22-point lead into the locker room.

The Mules shot 59.4 percent in the first half and are hitting at a 56.8-percent clip in the first 20 minutes of their last five games.

McDaniel came out with a smaller lineup in the second half, but Muhlenberg foiled the strategy by opening the half on a 17-4 run. The Mules made 11 of their first 16 shots in the second half, taking a 70-31 lead on Mefford’s three-pointer with 10:35 left.

Stewart finished with game highs of 20 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, notching his 13th double-double of the season. Scott and Huber each scored 16 points, while O’Brien contributed 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Muhlenberg has defeated McDaniel 15 straight times at home since 1987.

Click here for box score.