LEBANON, Ill. – McKendree University men's basketball sent the raucous season high crowd of 374 fans home with a free coupon for a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich following its 91-86 home victory here Thursday evening over Quincy University in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at the Harry M. Statham Sports Center.
 
Prior to the beginning of the season, the McKendree men's basketball program partnered with the Fairview Heights Chick-fil-A to offer fans a coupon for a free chicken sandwich at the Fairview Heights Chick-fil-A when the Bearcats score 85 points and win a home game during the 2021-22 season.
 
After coming up short of 85 points in its first five home games this season, the Bearcats were able to break through against the Hawks on Thursday evening as the Bearcats recorded season highs in points (91), first half points (46) field goals made (32), field goal percentage (66.7 percent), three-point field goal percentage (66.7 percent) and free throw percentage (94.4 percent) in extending its win streak to three consecutive games.
 
With Thursday's win, McKendree improved to 8-4 overall and evened its GLVC record at 4-4, while Quincy lost its fourth straight game and dropped its overall record to 9-10 and its GLVC record to 2-7.
 
"This was an incredibly hard-fought win over a good team. Credit to Quincy, they poked holes in our defense all night and it took an incredible effort on the offensive end for us to win," McKendree first-year head coach George Suggs said following the win. "I was proud of our poise down the stretch to close out the game. They hit some tough shots late and really made us execute to finish. We could not have done it without the support from our fans because they had it rocking late in the game."
 
Perhaps one of the most impressive stats from Thursday game as the Bearcats opened the game making 14 of its first 15 shots, including making all six of its three-point attempts in the opening 12-plus minutes of the game to push out to a 38-28 lead. McKendree bettered their previous season high of 41 first half points against Harris-Stowe on a lay-up from redshirt senior guard Brendon Gooch (Belleville, Ill./SIU-Carbondale) with 4:24 left in the opening half.
 
While scoring a season high 91 points, which are the most points scored by the Bearcats in a game since scoring 109 points last season against Lindenwood on Feb. 20, junior guard Bryson Bultman (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) led the way offensively with a season high 32 points as he was 11-for-14 from the field, including a 2-for-3 effort from the 3-point line and was 8-for-8 from the free throw line. The 32-point game by Bultman was his 13th career game of scoring 20 or more points, his second career game of scoring 30 or more points and his 10th consecutive double figure scoring game.
 
Bultman's 32-point game was the first 30-point game for a Bearcat player since Logan Kohrmann's 30 point game against USI on Nov. 22, 2020 and the second highest scoring game by an individual this season in the league. 
 
Along with Bultman's 32 points, senior forward Luke Hensler (Okawville, Ill./SWIC) scored a career-high 17 points, while Gooch added 16 points and eight rebounds and sophomore guard Carson Parker (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) tallied 15 points and six rebounds off the bench.
 
After opening the game by making 14 of its first 15 shots and shooting 71 percent from the field and 75 percent from the 3-point line, the Bearcats would conclude the contest shooting 66.7 percent from the field as they were 32-for-48 from the floor in the game. Additionally, they shot 67 percent (10-for-15) from the 3-point line. Overall, on the night, the Bearcats missed a total of 22 shots in the game as they missed 16 field goals, five 3-pointers and one free throw as they shot 94.4 percent (17-for-18) from the line.
 
McKendree jumped out to a 27-13 lead just a little over eight minutes into the game as the Bearcats made nine of their first 10 shots from the field, including making all five of their three-point shots. Bultman (12) and Hensler (10) combined for 22 of those 27 points.
 
Following that opening run, QU would respond with a 24-15 run over the next eight-plus minutes to cut the Bearcats lead to 42-37 with 4:11 left in the opening half.
 
After Bultman made two free throws to push its lead back out to 43-37 with 3:43 left, the Hawks would use an 11-3 run over the final 3:30 of the first half to take a 48-46 lead at the half. QU's first half closing run was keyed by six straight points by Malik Hardmon and capped by a basket with two seconds left by Nate Shockey. Shockey's basket came after Charles Callier made a lay-up and free throw for a 3-point play to tie the game at 46 with 36 seconds left.
 
The Bearcats would retake the lead at 55-48 thanks to opening the second half by scoring the first nine points just three minutes into the period. The run began and ended with lay-ups by Bultman.
 
The Hawks, though, would respond by using a 19-11 run over the next six minutes to take a 67-66 lead following a hook shot by Jamaurie Coakley with 10:58 left in the game. That lead was the first for Quincy since holding a 7-4 lead just two-plus minutes into the game.
 
From that point, the teams took turns holding the lead over the next four-plus minutes, before the Bearcats used a 9-2 run that began with a trey from Gooch and was capped by back-to-back lay-ups by Bultman to take an 84-78 lead with 3:08 left in the game.
 
QU would score five of the next seven points to pull within 86-83 on a 3-pointer by Paul Zlinskas with 2:05 remaining. The Bearcats, though, would hold off the Hawks as they closed the game by making five of its final six free throws and crossed the 85-point barrier on a lay-up by Parker with 2:21 remaining.
 
Hardmon led the way for Quincy with 20 points and seven rebounds off the bench as QU's bench scored 52 of the Hawks' 86 points. In addition to Hardmon, Mark Bradshaw, Jr., and Shockey each tallied 16 points and Callier added 10 points.
 
Quincy, who shot 56 percent from the field in the first half, finished the game shooting 49 percent from the field and 35 percent from the 3-point line. The 49 percent shooting by the Hawks was the highest percentage allowed this season by the Bearcats as they entered the game fifth in the league in field goal percentage defense at 40.5 percent.
 
Much like McKendree, Quincy was also strong at the free throw line as they were 9-for-10 at the line in the loss.
 
Both teams recorded 27 rebounds in the game, but 15 of QU's came on the offensive end as they held a 15-4 edge on offensive boards that led to 18 second chance points by the Hawks.
 
McKendree dished out a season high 20 assists as Bultman and Gooch each had five and redshirt senior guard Oliver Stephen (Edwardsville, Ill./SWIC) added four assists.
 
The Bearcats lost the turnover battle 15-8 and the Hawks scored 20 points off those 15 McKendree turnovers and both teams blocked four shots with Hensler and Bultman each recording two blocks apiece for the Bearcats.
 
McKendree will look to make its four straight wins this coming Saturday, Jan. 22 as they host the University of Illinois-Springfield for a 3 p.m. game at the Statham Sports Center. UIS enters the game sporting a 9-7 overall record and a 4-4 mark in the GLVC following its 66-39 loss on Thursday at Southern Indiana. The Bearcats opened GLVC play this season with a 51-47 win in Springfield, Ill., on Nov. 29 over the Prairie Stars.