(LEBANON, Ill., Nov. 24)—The McKendree University men's basketball team used a balanced attack to register a 72-55 victory Saturday afternoon at home against Principia College.
Ten of the 11 McKendree players who saw action in Saturday's contest found the scoring column as the Bearcats built a 23-point halftime lead and never looked back. McKendree earned its second straight win to move to 2-2 on the year. The Bearcats will kick off their Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Thursday evening at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.
Junior center
Nolan Gerling (Germantown, IL/Mater Dei) narrowly missed a double-double for McKendree as he posted team-high totals of 12 points and nine rebounds. Senior guard
Giovanni Offard (Freeport, IL/Freeport) chipped in with 11 points and a game-high seven assists for the Bearcats, while junior forward
Rathen Carter (Oklahoma City, OK/Heritage Hall) came off the bench to add 10 points and three steals. Sophomore forward
Jacob Donaldson (Effingham, IL/Effingham) collected a game-high four blocked shots in the effort. McKendree's reserves helped fuel the victory as they outscored the Principia bench players by a margin of 28-2.
McKendree never trailed in Saturday's contest, opening the game on an 11-4 run over the first 3:16 of play. Gerling hit his first four shots of the day, including three during the Bearcats' fast start. After quickly pushing the advantage to double-digits, McKendree reeled off 11 consecutive points to take its largest lead of the period, 38-14, with 3:19 remaining in the half. The Bearcats shot 51.4 percent (18-of-35) over the first 20 minutes to take a 43-20 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, McKendree continued to add to its lead, grabbing its biggest advantage of the game at 63-34 following a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Carrington Bass (Floosmoor, IL/Crete-Monee) with 10:36 to play. In addition to its 28-2 advantage in bench scoring, the Bearcats also turned 20 Principia turnovers into 24 points on the offensive end.
Trevaughn Goodman led Principia (1-4) with a game-high 17 points, while Micah Paulson connected for 14 ponits. Clark Davidson contributed 11 points and a team-best eight rebounds for the Panthers.
