LEBANON, Ill. - The men's basketball team will open up their regular season play at the annual GLVC/G-MAC Crossover event against Tiffin University and Malone University from Friday, November 8th to Saturday, November 9th at hosting Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.
This is the second straight season the crossover will take place and the first such event that Lewis has hosted with McKendree in it since the 2021-22 year. The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) have paired up to strengthen each other's non-conference schedules by each sending in two of their representing member institutions to the crossover. Last year, the Bearcats went 1-1 in the event with a win against Tiffin and a loss to Ohio Dominican University in the following game.
BEARCATS CURRENTLY
McKendree is coming off a 15-13 overall record while going 9-11 last season in conference play. They won a monumental five-game streak late into the season, which was enough to give them the 8-seed in the GLVC Championship Tournament. The Bearcats could not keep up against the top-seeded University of Indianapolis in the quarterfinals, losing 77-68.
Head Coach George Suggs is returning for his seventh season at McKendree while being his fourth as the head of the helm. He is bringing back eight players from last year's squad and has rounded out the remaining spots with prospects from the four-year, junior college, and high school ranks. Five seniors in guard Joey Niesman (Oswego, Ill.), guard Kevin Stein (Chester, N.Y.) guard Jasksen Harre (Okawville, Ill.), forward Hayden Meakes (Adelaide, Australia), and guard Destin Whitaker (Romeoville, Ill.) will presume to lead the charge this season.
Niesman led all scorers returning from last year for the Bearcats, with 9.7 a game with 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists to support. Stein and Meakes both made big contributions as well with the former averaging 6.8 while the latter had 6.6 points a contest.
McKendree was second in the GLVC and fourth in the nation across all NCAA Division II programs in field goal percentage, shooting 51.1% from the field. That translated to their effective field goal percentage, giving them a 0.581 value. They also were a top-two team in defensive rebounding, grabbing 26.5 boards on the opposing end of the floor a game.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Tiffin University | Friday, November 8th, 5:30 PM CT
Last Matchup: L, 68-65 on 11/10/2023 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
The Dragons are coming off an 86-60 loss at Division I member Evansville University on Saturday, October 26th in an exhibition match. Senior guard Allen Fordham led his team with 11 points and four rebounds while three other Dragons contributed seven points each. They recently completed an 18-12 overall and 11-9 G-MAC record last season where they beat Kentucky Wesleyan University in the conference semifinals before losing to Thomas More University by one point in the semifinals.
Tiffin's head man, Desmond Balentine is in his first season with the program after spending the last two seasons as an assistant coach. He is inheriting a squad that was a brick wall defensively, ranking first in the conference in steals-per-game, turnover margin, and turnovers forced per game. Even with solid defense, the Dragons were also a high-IQ team, finishing 15th in the nation with the fewest fouls per game at 14.2.
Malone University | Saturday, November 9th, 1:00 PM CT
Last Matchup: N/A
Coming in at fifth in the G-MAC Preseason Poll, the Pioneers out of Canton, Ohio are looking to have a longer season than last, as they just barely missed the conference tournament with a 15-13 record overall while falling a little below at 8-12 in G-MAC action. Malone finished off the year winning five of their last six contests.
Charlie Wallrapp is in his second season as Head Coach of the program as he is bringing back with him a ton of collegiate experience with seven seniors and three graduate students. Guard Simon Blair is one of those graduates returning for the Pioneers, as he finished top five in the conference and top 80 in the country in total assists and assists-per-games with 118 and 4.2 respectively. Blair was also the leading scorer last season, scoring 18.1 points a game while fellow graduate Tre Baumgardner III was the team's third leading scorer with 10.7 points a contest.
Like Tiffin, Malone prides themselves on the defense, where they led the G-MAC in blocks per game at 3.8 while also finishing second in field goal percentage defense at 41.9% allowed which was good for 38th in the nation. The Pioneers also take good care of the ball on the offensive end, by only turning it over 9.5 times a game, making it good for third in the conference and 13th in Division II.
TUNE IN-FO
vs Tiffin University
WATCH: Click HERE ($ – GLVC Sports Network)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
HISTORY: Click HERE
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [Tiffin]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [Tiffin]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [Tiffin]
vs Malone University
WATCH: Click HERE ($ – GLVC Sports Network)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
HISTORY: Click HERE
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [Malone]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [Malone]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [Malone]
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