(LEBANON, Ill., Jan. 2) – The McKendree University men's basketball team fell in its first game of 2020 to Southwest Baptist 76-68 in the Battle of the Bearcats on Thursday. McKendree is now 6-4 overall on the season and 1-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC).

McKendree got on the board first with a sophomore forward Aleksa Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia/BC Partizan Belgrade) jumper. The Bearcat squads went basket-for-basket until Southwest Baptist managed a ten point unanswered run to take an 18-8 lead over McKendree with 11:52 remaining in the first half. McKendree chipped away at SBU's lead throughout the remainder of the half, pulling it within one of Southwest Baptist with 29 seconds left to go into halftime down 33-32.

At the beginning of the second half, McKendree scored five unanswered points to take the lead over Southwest Baptist, 39-35. Unfortunately there was too much time remaining in the game and SBU managed to cut back the deficit, eventually pulling away once again to win the game 76-68.

Free throw shooting proved to be a downfall for McKendree on the day as the Bearcats went four for 10 in the first half and 12-16 in the second to shoot only 61.5 percent on the night. McKendree scored more off turnovers and its bench recorded more points than SBU but Southwest Baptist was able to put up more second chance points.

Three Bearcats tallied double-digit points for McKendree. Popovic led the pack with 18, senior guard Logan Kohrmann (Bartelso, IL/Breese Central) was close behind with 17, and freshman forward Bryson Bultman (Nashville, IL/Nashville) rounded out the efforts with 14 total points. Bultman was also one rebound away from recording a double-double with nine rebounds on the night to lead the Bearcats defensive efforts.

McKendree will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 4 for a 3 p.m. game against GLVC foe, Drury University.