LEBANON, Ill. – The McKendree University men's basketball opened the New Year here Sunday afternoon by suffering a hard-fought 68-55 setback to the University of Southern Indiana in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the Harry M. Statham Sports Center on the McKendree campus.
 
With the setback, McKendree falls to 5-3 overall and 1-3 in the GLVC, while USI extended its win streak to five straight games and improved its record to 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the league.
 
Sunday's game began a stretch of three games this week for the Bearcats to open the 2022 calendar year as McKendree will play on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. ET in Indianapolis, Ind., against the University of Indianapolis and then conclude the stretch with a 3 p.m. home game next Saturday, Jan. 8 against Truman State.
 
Junior guard Byson Bultman (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) paced the way offensively for the Bearcats as he tallied a game high 22 points, including scoring 17 of those 22 points in the first half to help give the Bearcats a 34-32 lead at the half.
 
With his 22 points, Bultman has now scored in double figures in seven of eight games on the season and has had four games of scoring 20 or points. Additionally, Bultman increased his career scoring total to 709 points and is now 291 points shy of joining the 1,000-Point Club.
 
In addition to Bultman, junior guard Aleksandar Davitkov (Belgrade, Serbia/Partizan) added 10 points and redshirt junior guard CaRondis Harris-Anderson (Waterloo, Iowa/West) tallied seven points off the bench.
 
USI's win was keyed by 36-point second half and 43-30 edge on the boards, including a 12-8 advantage on the offensive glass. The 12-8 edge on the offensive boards led to a 15-10 advantage in second chance points.
 
The Bearcats, who hadn't played a game since picking up an 80-67 win at home on Dec. 14 against then 21st-ranked Union University, showed little rust early in the contest as they scored the first four points and led 18-11 just a little under nine minutes into the game.
 
USI, though, would respond with an 6-2 run to drop McKendree's lead to 20-17 with 8:44 left in the opening half.
 
McKendree would answer right back by scoring eight of the next 10 points to push its lead to 28-19 following a 3-pointer by redshirt senior guard Oliver Stephen (Edwardsville, Ill./SWIC) with 6:39 left in the first half. That nine-point lead was the largest of the game for the Bearcats.
 
The Screaming Eagles, who have now won three straight games in the series against the Bearcats, would use 12-4 run to cut McKendree's lead to 32-31 with 2:48 left in the opening half. Two free throws by senior forward Aleksa Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Cleveland State) with 1:35 left gave the Bearcats a 34-31 lead, before Jacob Polakovich hit one-of-two free throws with 46 seconds left to cap the first half scoring and give McKendree a 34-32 lead.
 
After opening the game making nine of its first 14 shots, the Bearcats closed the first half making just three of its final 13 shots to close the half shooting 44 percent from the field.
 
USI would open the second half by scoring 10 of the first 11 points to turn its two-point halftime deficit into a 42-35 lead just three minutes out of the locker room.
 
Senior forward Luke Hensler (Okawville, Ill./Okawville) and Bultman would combine score the next six points to pull the Bearcats within 42-41 with 13:10 left in the game.
 
USI would respond with a 7-3 run to push in front 49-44 with 10:25 left in the game, but Davitkov would drill a trey with 8:58 left in the game to drop USI's lead to 49-47.
 
That would be as close as the Bearcats would get as the Eagles responded with a 10-4 run to push its lead to 59-51 with 4:23 remaining. The run began with a lay-up from Jelani Simmons and was capped by a trey from Simmons, who finished with 10 points for the game.
 
The Bearcats tried to mount another comeback as they scored four of the next six points to pull within 61-55 with 2:02 left, before Tyler Henry completed a 3-point play with 1:39 left to give USI a 64-55 lead.
 
Isaiah Swope and Clayton Hughes would each connect on two free throws in the final 69 seconds to cap the scoring.
 
Polakovich led the way for USI with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Henry added 14 points and six rebounds and Swope fell one point shy of double figures as he had nine points in the win.
 
McKendree finished the game shooting 34 percent from the field, including making just nine of its final 39 shots after connecting on nine of its first 14 shots. In addition to shooting 34 percent from the field, the Bearcats shot 24 percent (6-for-25) from the 3-point line, including a 1-for-12 effort from long distance in the second half.
 
Meanwhile, USI shot 41 percent from the field and 29 percent from the 3-point line. The Eagles shot 48 percent from the floor in the second half after making just 30 percent of their shots in the opening half.
 
The two teams combined to shoot 41 free throws for the game as USI was 19-for-24 (79.2 percent), while McKendree was 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) from the line. The game featured a total of 37 fouls being called.
 
McKendree committed 12 turnovers and had six steals, while USI had 11 turnovers and five steals.
 
The Bearcats will look to return to the win column on Tuesday, Jan. 4 as they travel to Indianapolis, Ind., for its 5:30 p.m. GLVC contest at UIndy (8-3 overall, 2-1 GLVC).