GAME DAY LINKS --
McKENDREE at MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS -- Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Mark Twain Building -- St. Louis, Mo.
WATCH LIVE (UMSL Broadcast)
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
UMSL SEASON STATISTICS
McKENDREE at MARYVILLE -- Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018, 3 p.m.
Moloney Arena -- St. Louis, Mo.
WATCH LIVE (Maryville Broadcast)
LIVE STATS
McKENDREE SEASON STATISTICS
MARYVILLE SEASON STATISTICS
(LEBANON, Ill., Nov. 28)--The McKendree University men's basketball team will tip off its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule this weekend with a pair of road contests. The Bearcats will make the short trip to St. Louis both days, visiting the University of Missouri-St. Louis Thursday night before facing Maryville University Saturday afternoon.
McKendree will look to keep its winning ways intact during the two-game road trip. The Bearcats have won their last two games, including a 72-55 triumph at home against Principia College on Saturday.
Nolan Gerling (Germantown, IL/Mater Dei) led the way for McKendree with 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds against the Panthers.
Giovanni Offard (Freeport, IL/Freeport) added 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while
Rathen Carter (Oklahoma City, OK/Heritage Hall) also reached double digits in the scoring column with 10 points. The win enabled the Bearcats to reach the .500 mark at 2-2 overall.
Head coach
Chris Foster -- who picked up his first two victories as head coach of the Bearcats last week -- is utilizing a balanced offensive attack, with three players averaging in double figures. Carter leads the trio at 13.5 PPG, while
Nate Michael (St. Joseph, IL/St. Joseph-Ogden) is next at 12 PPG. Gerling rounds out the group at 10.3 PPG. Offard leads the Bearcats in both rebounding at 5.3 RPG and assists with 24. Offard currently ranks fourth among all NCAA Division II qualifying players in assist-to-turnover ratio at 6.0.
As a team, McKendree ranks 10th in the nation in free throw percentage, hitting 81.5 percent of their tries from the charity stripe. The Bearcats are also 15th in NCAA Division II with just 42 turnovers through four games, while they are 16th in fewest fouls with 55.
This week's games will open a stretch of five road contests in a six-game span for McKendree. The Bearcats' lone appearance at the Statham Center during that span will come next Wednesday, Dec. 5, with a non-conference match-up against Blackburn College.
ABOUT UMSL
The Tritons are off to a 6-1 start under head coach Bob Sundvold, who recently collected his 200th victory as a collegiate head coach. UMSL ran its current win streak to three games thanks to an 84-74 win at home against the University of Central Missouri on Saturday. Johnathan Matthews led all players with 26 points in the effort, while Jose Grubbs came off the bench to add 15 points.
Ronnie Carson is the Tritons' leading scorer this season at 13.7 PPG. Eric Dust is next with 13.3 PPG, while Matthews is close behind at 12.4 PPG. Dust is the team's leading rebounder at 6.4 RPG, while Shane Wissink is posting 10 PPG and team-leading totals of 33 assists and 20 steals through the first seven games of the season for UMSL.
McKendree and Missouri-St. Louis split its 2017-18 season, with each team winning at home. The Tritons used a last-second shot to defeat the Bearcats 59-57 on Jan. 13, 2018 in St. Louis before McKendree returned the favor with an 88-84 triumph at the Statham Center on Feb. 15, 2018.
ABOUT MARYVILLE
The Saints bring a 4-2 overall record into their Thursday night home game against the University of Illinois Springfield. Maryville participated in the UMSL Thanksgiving Classic over the weekend and defeated Missouri Western State Unievrsity in its last game on Saturday. Chaz Glotta paced the Saints with 26 points and nine rebounds, while Casey Teson added 22 points.
Teson and Glotta both rank in the GLVC's top 10 in scoring entering the week. Teson sits fourth on the chart with a team-leading 20.7 PPG. while Glotta is sixth overall at 17.2 PPG. Robin Thompson is scorching the nets for a field goal percentage of 69 percent, which is good for third in the league. Glotta has also made a conference-best 23 three-pointers so far in 2018-19. Eugene Jones is the Saints' leading rebounder at 6.3 RPG, while Thompson has dished out 17 assists.
Maryville won both meetings against McKendree last season. The Saints opened with a 79-66 victory on Jan. 13, 2018 in Lebanon before defeating the Bearcats 86-77 in St. Louis on Feb. 17, 2018.
