GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE vs. QUINCY -- Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Harry M. Statham Sports Center -- Lebanon, Ill.
WATCH LIVE (Bearcat Sports Network)
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
QUINCY SEASON STATISTICS
(LEBANON, Ill., Jan. 17)--The McKendree University men's basketball team will open up a three-game home stand Thursday with a visit from Quincy University. The Bearcats and Hawks will tip off the Great Lakes Valley Conference contest at 7:30 p.m. inside the Harry M. Statham Sports Center. Thursday's contest can be seen live on the Bearcat Sports Network at
www.glvcsn.com/mckendree.
McKendree picked up a big GLVC victory Monday evening with a 74-59 triumph at the University of Illinois Springfield. The Bearcats snapped a four-game winless streak in the process as Nate Bethel came off the bench to post a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds to show the way. Nolan Gerling added 13 points in the win, while Malcolm Mabry pulled down a team-best 11 rebounds to help McKendree gain a season split against the Prairie Stars. McKendree enters Thursday's contest with an 11-6 overall record and a 2-5 mark in league action.
More importantly, McKendree moved into the No. 8 spot in the GLVC ratings system that is being used to determine the eight qualifiers to the 2018 GLVC Tournament. The top eight teams in the final ranking after play on Feb. 24 will qualify for the conference tournament to be held March 1-4 in Edwardsville, Ill. Despite the Bearcats' 2-5 conference record, McKendree sits in eighth thanks to a pair of quality wins at UIS and at Drury University (100-91 back on Dec. 2).
Justin Blanks, who had 10 points in the win Monday at UIS, maintained his scoring lead in the GLVC at 19.2 points per game. Mabry has moved up to fourth in the league in rebounding, averaging 9.1 RPG. Gerling sits 10th in the conference in field goal percentage, hitting 58.5 percent of his attempts from the floor. Nate Michael is sixth in the GLVC in free throw percentage at 82.6 percent. Giovanni Offard (pictured) holds down two spots in the GLVC top 10 in two different categories. Offard is fourth in steals per game at 1.7 SPG, while he is eighth in assists at 3.7 APG.
Following Thursday's contest, McKendree will have a week to prepare for William Jewell College, which comes to the Statham Center on Thursday, Jan. 25 for a 7:30 p.m. contest. The Bearcats' home stand will conclude with a visit from the University of Southern Indiana on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m.
ABOUT QUINCY UNIVERSITY
The Hawks are 4-12 overall and 0-7 in the GLVC under the direction of first-year head coach Ryan Hellenthal. Quincy has lost its last four games, including an 80-62 setback on Monday at Maryville University. Ryan Briscoe dropped in a team-best 16 points and added eight assists while Marcus Hinton posted 13 points and a team-leading six rebounds.
Demetrius Houston leads a balanced scoring attack for Quincy this season at 13.2 PPG. Hinton is next at 11.8 PPG, and he leads the team in rebounding at 8.6 RPG. Hinton is currently fifth in the GLVC in rebounding, right behind Mabry. Briscoe also averages in double figures at 10.1 PPG and has dished out a team-best 72 assists. Briscoe's 4.5 assists per game place him in a tie for third in the conference.
In the last meeting between the two teams on Jan. 5, 2017 at the Statham Center, Quincy edged McKendree 79-77. The Hawks scored the game-winning basket with just 1.5 seconds remaining to negate an 11-point comeback by the Bearcats in the second half. Michael Jackson scored a team-high 18 points for McKendree, while David Franklin registered a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
