GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS -- Thursday, Feb, 4, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Mark Twain Building, St. Louis, Mo.
LISTEN LIVE (Bearcat Sports Network) | WATCH LIVE (UMSL Broadcast) | LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS SEASON STATISTICS
McKENDREE at MARYVILLE -- Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, 3 p.m.
Moloney Arena, St. Louis, Mo.
LISTEN LIVE (Bearcat Sports Network) | WATCH LIVE (Maryville Broadcast) | LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
MARYVILLE SEASON STATISTICS
(LEBANON, Ill., Feb. 4)--The McKendree University men's basketball teams will be on the road for their final two regular-season contests this weekend. The Bearcats will make the short trip to St. Louis twice over the next three days, first meeting the University of Missouri-St. Louis Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. before taking on Maryville University Saturday at 3 p.m.
McKendree enters Thursday's game at UMSL with an overall record of 10-9. The Bearcats are in the thick of the hunt for a Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament berth, sitting at 3-8 in league play. McKendree split its conference games at the Harry M. Statham Sports Center last week, knocked off the University of Wisconsin-Parkside -- then ranked 21st in the NABC poll -- 92-85 last Thursday before suffering an 87-79 setback against Lewis University on Saturday. The win over Wisconsin-Parkside was McKendree's first over a ranked opponent since the Bearcats became full NCAA Division II members prior to the 2012-13 season.
The UW-Parkside win also gave McKendree men's basketball coach
Harry Statham career victory No. 1,098, which tied him with former University of Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt for the all-time record for collegiate coaching victories -- men's or women's, all divisions -- at the four-year level. The next win by McKendree would put Statham atop the wins list, and would also put him one victory shy of 1,100 in his 50-year career with the Bearcats.
David Franklin (O'Fallon, IL/Althoff Catholic) became the first McKendree player this season -- and just the second Bearcat since the school joined the league in 2012-13 -- to earn GLVC Player of the Week honors. Franklin averaged 27.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in leading McKendree to its split last week. On top of his lofty scoring and rebounding totals for the week, Franklin made all 17 of his free throws in the two contests. He is the first Bearcat to earn GLVC Player of the Week honors since John Steppe won the award back in December 2012.
Franklin is now second in the GLVC in scoring at 20 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 7.9 per outing. He is one of just two players in the league to sit in the top five in both scoring and rebounding.
Michael Jackson (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon) is second on the team in scoring at 13.8 PPG, while
Nate Michael (St. Joseph, IL/St. Joseph-Ogden) (11.8 PPG) and
Darin Winkelman (Steeleville, IL/Steeleville) (10.5 PPG) are also scoring in double figures. Franklin leads the squad with 61 assists, while Michael has a team-best 16 steals.
ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUISThe Tritons are 8-12 on the year and 2-9 against GLVC foes. Both conference wins for UMSL came last weekend at home, taking contests against William Jewell College (68-51 last Thursday) and Rockhurst University (75-62 on Saturday). Prior to those wins, UMSL had dropped six games in a row. Brandon Marquardt leads a balanced attack for the Tritons in the scoring column at 14.3 points per game. He has connected on 50 percent of his field goal tries while shooting nearly 80 percent from the free throw line. Marquardt also ranks third among all GLVC players in three-point field goal percentage, connecting on 48.5 percent of his tries from beyond the arc. He leads the conference in three-pointers made per game at 3.15.
Cortez Conners (10.1 PPG) and Joshua Webster (10.1 PPG) are also averaging in double figures. In all, the Tritons have five players averaging at least eight points per outing. Joseph English is fifth in the GLVC in assists, averaging 4.2 per game.
In last year's meeting -- which was played at UMSL on Jan. 4, 2015 -- the host Tritons escaped with a 71-70 victory. A potential game-winning shot for McKendree was blocked, and UMSL's Aareon Smith was fouled with 2.1 seconds to play. He made one of two free throws to give the Tritons the win.
Logan Carson (DuQuoin, IL/DuQuoin) led McKendree in the contest with 15 points, while
Michael Jackson (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon) added 14 points. Smith led all scorers as he had 24 points for UMSL. The Tritons have won 13 of 18 meetings against the Bearcats since the beginning of the 1966-67 season, which was
Harry Statham's first on the sidelines for McKendree.
ABOUT MARYVILLEThe Saints enter this weekend's play with an 8-13 overall record and 2-9 mark against GLVC competition. Maryville will host the University of Illinois Springfield Thursday evening before squaring off against the Bearcats on Saturday. The Saints snapped a seven-game losing streak on Saturday by defeating William Jewell at Moloney Arena, 73-72. Max Mischkulnig's basket and free throw with 10.4 seconds remaining lifted the Saints to the conference win. Forrester Sims leads Maryville in scoring at 15.1 points per game. He also tops the squad with 67 assists and in free throw percentage at .917. In fact, Sims leads the GLVC in free throw percentage. Marvin Clark-Grant is second on the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game while hitting better than 86 percent of his free throw attempts. Saikou Jallow is tied for seventh in the league in assists, averaging 4.1 per game.
McKendree and Maryville opened GLVC play last season on Jan. 2, 2015, with the host Saints posting a 79-64 win.
Michael Jackson (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon) paced the Bearcats with 18 points, while
Matt Holmes (Houston, TX/Marshall) added a double-double of 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Mischkulnig led Maryville with 26 points and nine rebounds.
Following this weekend's play, McKendree will have a five-game homestand to close out the 2015-16 regular season, beginning with a match-up on Thursday, Feb. 11 against Missouri S & T.
