LEBANON, Ill. – The McKendree men's basketball team continues their four-game road trip as they travel across the river to the University of Missouri – St. Louis Tritons on Saturday, January 13
th.
Game Information
GLVC Sports Network PPV
New this year for the GLVC Sports Network is the conference has moved to a Pay-Per-View model for men's and women's basketball. The game will cost $10. Viewers also have the option to buy an all-sport pass for $75, and a full GLVC package for $100.
All games will be streamed at GLVCSN.com/McKendree.
Familiar Foe
The Bearcats and Tritons matched up against each other on four different occasions during the 2022-23 season. They split the regular season matchups, where the road team won both games. During the postseason, McKendree defeated the Tritons in the GLVC championship game. Just nine days later, they competed again in the NCAA Midwest Regional Final as the UMSL Tritons won 62-60.
Record Book Watch
A few Bearcats are working their way up the men's basketball record book in the Division II era. Junior forward
Milos Vicentic sits at 920 points, which is fourth most in a Bearcat uniform. Justin Blanks (2016-18) sits in the third spot with 983. Vicentic has also entered the top 5 for field goals made with 359.
Fellow Serbian,
Aleksandar Davitkov has made 102 three-pointers, which puts him in seventh for most in a career. He is nine shy of tying Michael Jackson who sits in sixth with 111. Davitkov will make his 100
th career appearance as a Bearcat in the game on Saturday.
Senior guard,
Carson Parker is making a name for himself on the glass as a Bearcat. Currently, he is second in career rebounds with 419 with 325 of those being defensive. The Nashville, Illinois native needs five defensive boards to move into second by himself. He also sits in fourth with 94 offensive rebounds.
Scouting the Bearcats
McKendree will enter Saturday's GLVC contest with an overall record of 9-4 (3-3 GLVC) after defeating the Missouri S&T Miners on January 6
th. Led in scoring by Vicentic, who is averaging 22.8 points per game (2
nd in the GLVC, 9
th in D2), the Bearcats are averaging 77.9 points per game. The junior from Serbia, is leading the nation in field goals made with 125. They are outscoring their opponents by 5.4 points.
Coming off his fifth career double-double,
Caleb Zurliene is third in the GLVC with a field goal percentage of 60.2, averaging 14.5 points per game. He is also leading the conference in blocks with 40 (3.08 blocks per game).
Leading the GLVC in field goal percentage, shooting at a clip of 53.4%, they are second in the nation behind California (Penn.) University who is at 53.9%.
Scouting the Tritons
The University of Missouri – St. Louis Tritons come in with an overall record of 7-7 (5-1 GLVC) and winners of their last two. The Tritons are led by Matt Enright who is averaging 13.1 points per game while shooting 45.5% from the field. He is the lone Triton to start all 14 games so far this season. UMSL is being outscored by 5.1 (66.3 to 71.4).
Despite sitting towards the top of the GLVC standings, UMSL is in the bottom half of most of the offensive stat categories. They are 14
th in scoring offense, 7
th in field goal percentage, 13
th in three-point percentage and 14
th in assists per game.
