(LIBERTY, Mo., Jan. 16) – The McKendree University men's basketball team picked up a 73-70 win over Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) foe, William Jewell on Thursday night. The Bearcats improve to 9-5 overall on the season and 4-2 in conference competition.
Within the first minute of play, sophomore forward
Aleksa Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia/BC Partizan Belgrade) recorded a steal that led to a senior guard
Logan Kohrmann (Bartelso, IL/Breese Central) layup to get the Bearcats on the board first. Popovic went on to make a layup of his own and then freshman forward Brsyon Bultman tallied a layup as well to give McKendree an early 6-0 lead. William Jewell managed to get on the board but never ahead of the Bearcats as McKendree took a 33-27 lead heading into halftime.
The Bearcats opened up the second half with a five point unanswered run to spread its lead to 38-27 over the Cardinals. William Jewell made itself competitive moving forward coming within two points of McKendree on multiple occasions during the second half and even tied the game up with a minute left to play, but never took the lead. The last minute of play consisted of back-and-forth fouls and free throws with the Bearcats coming out on top 73-70.
Three Bearcats recorded double digit points to push McKendree to victory. Bultman led the way with 21 points, a new personal best, Kohrmann followed suit with 20, and senior forward
Nate Bethel (Nassau, Bahamas/St. Louis Christian Academy) rounded out the efforts with 16 points. Bultman was also to leader in assists with five on the night. Junior guard
Oliver Stephen (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) led the team in rebounds as the only player to tally double figures with 10 on the night.
As a team, McKendree recorded a 50 percent shooting percentage from the field goal range, 28.6 percent from behind the three, and went 15-19 at the free throw line for 78.9 percent. The Bearcats recorded 10 points off of second chance opportunities, collected 40 of their points from inside the paint, and tallied 11 points off of turnovers.
McKendree will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 18 with a game against Rockhurst in Kansas City, Mo. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.
