JOPLIN, MO — Tuesday evening, the Missouri Southern Women and Men’s Basketball teams hosted their “Meet the Lions” event.

At the event, there was free hot dogs with chips and was open to anyone to come on out.

The 2023-24 women’s basketball teams were introduced to the fans, while the men signed autographs for fans and even little MOSO Lion fans.

The women held a half court contest after they engaged in a 20-minute scrimmage.

MSSU men held a dunk contest before their 20-minute scrimmage, which fans enjoyed watching.

We spoke to both head coaches on what it means to see the Joplin community show their love and support for their basketball teams.

MSSU WBB Head Coach Ronnie Ressel said, “Well It’s tremendous. And we’ve had support for years now. We’ve had support when we weren’t very good and we’ve had great support since we’ve been pretty good last couple of years. Joplin’s been tremendous to Missouri Southern, as far as our athletics coming out, supporting the men’s and women’s basketball teams year in, year out. So it’s just exciting to see all the people come out for a 20 minute scrimmage, watch our women play, and then another 20 minute scrimmage to watch our men play on a Tuesday night”.

MSSU MBB Head Coach Sam McMahon said, “The Joplin community is just tremendous for us and they’ve support us every step of the way. We’re just excited to kind of give back to them and kind of show you show them what we got to offer this season and we’re excited to compete in front of them.”