LEBANON, Ill. – The men's basketball team will embark on their second multi-team event (MTE) of the season as they will compete in the DoubleTree by Hilton Thanksgiving Classic, which will be hosted by fellow GLVC-member Drury University in Springfield, Missouri on November 25th and 26th. 

In the holiday event, McKendree will take on the University of Central Missouri on Tuesday and will face (RV) Concordia University, St. Paul the next day on Wednesday, with both matchups slated for a 3:15 PM CT tip. 

Both games will be streamed on Drury's GLVC Sports Network via a subscription/download purchase, as live stats will also be available for fans to tune in. 

Tickets can be purchased through Drury's athletic website. To pick the day(s) to attend, select the date(s) in the drop-down menu and select the WBB/MBB combo as you will receive one ticket for all four games that day (two women's basketball and two men's basketball). Ticket prices are $12, and children who are at the age of 12 and under are free of admission. 

A full tournament central site courtesy of Drury University Athletics can be found HERE. 

[Central Missouri] [Concordia-St. Paul] 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTING 

It was in-and-out for the Bearcats on Friday as they handled NAIA-member Hannibal-LaGrange University with ease in McKendree's season home opener and beat the Trojans 80-39. The win moves the Bearcats to a 3-0 overall record start for a second consecutive year with yet to play in GLVC action. 

Freshman guard Moses Wilson (Aurora, Ill.) led all scorers with 13 points on a perfect shooting night of 6-for-6, including a three-pointer and four dunks. He supplemented his scoring with three rebounds and a pair of steals. 

Redshirt sophomore guard Grant Fridley (Trenton, Ill.) followed suit with 11 points to his name while also shooting 100% from the field and three boards collected, plus an assist. 

Four Bearcats reached the nine-point mark in Cha'Vez Woods, Andrew Moore, Wyatt Zellers, and Jakob Fredricksen. The foursome combined for 27 rebounds (with Fredricksen collecting eight) and six steals and shot a collective average of 45.5% from the floor and 44.4% from beyond the arc. 

HISTORY SHOWCASE 

Against Central Missouri, this is the first-ever meeting between the two teams within the NCAA Division II era. As a matter of fact, McKendree has never faced off against a current member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA) in its Division II history. 

Against Concordia-St. Paul, it will also be the two's first matchup in the Division II era, and like Central Missouri, it will be the Bearcats' first contest against a current member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). 

KNOW THE FOE 

Central Missouri was picked at the midway point of this season's MIAA coaches and media polls, being slotted at 7th place for both out of a 14-team conference. The Mules have played an abundant six games thus far into the early season, going 4-2 overall with yet to play in conference action. They already played in two other MTEs ,with the D2 CCA Tip-Off Classic (2-1) and the Central Region Challenge at Pittsburg State University (1-1), as the lone other game on their schedule was against fellow GLVC-member Upper Iowa University last Thursday, November 20th, when they narrowly won 84-79. 

Concordia-St. Paul, like McKendree has started the season 3-0 after being placed 4th in this season's NSCI Preseason Coaches Poll and fifth in the South Division of the conference. The Golden Bears captured their first-ever conference regular season title and made it the semifinals of the NCAA Regionals while finishing with a 22-9 overall record and went 16-6 in the NSIC. Baxck to this season, Concordia-St. Paul defeated the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Fort Hays State University as part of the NSIC/MIAA Challenge and most recently took down Winona State University in an early conference matchup, 83-58 on Wednesday, November 19th. 

KEEP PUTTING A LID ON IT! 

Since November 17th, and up till this point (November 24th) after anchoring down against Hannibal-LaGrange by holding the Trojans to just 39 total points, McKendree still holds firm at first in all of NCAA Division II scoring defense by limiting their opposition to just 45.3 points per contest. 

They are also a +4.2 margin over the second-ranked team, which so happens to be GLVC-foe Missouri S&T, who holds opponent scoring to 49.5 points per game. 

REBOUND THAT JAWN! 

Three McKendree players thus far have averaged 6.0 rebounds or better per game, with two of which are guards (Rini Harris and Andrew Moore) and one is a forward (Noah Franklin). Moore and Franklin grab approximately a third of their boards from the offensive end of the floor with each averaging 2.0 per contest as Harris snags 6.0 of his 6.7 total rebounds from the defensive side of the ball. 

You would have to go back to the 2017-18 season to find the last time a Bearcat team finished the year with three or more players who ended the season averaging 6.0 rebounds or greater, with Malcom Mabry (9.6), Nolan Gerling (6.5), and Rathen Carter (6.0). 

THREE-AND-OH-YEAH 

McKendree is entering their fourth game of the season at a 3-0 mark for a second straight season and a sixth time overall in their 14th year as an NCAA Division II program. Similar to last year, the Bearcats opened their regular season in the annual GLVC/G-MAC Crossover with their third contest being their home-opener. 

Last year's team averaged a 28.0 point margin of victory through their first three regular season games while this year's team has averaged a 24.0 margin. The program is historically 2-3 in reaching a .500 record when starting the year 3-0 (in Division II era). 

NCAA'S TOP 100 (as of 11/24/25) 

McKENDREE 

Team: 

• Effective field goal percentage (75th – 54.2%) 
• Field goal percentage (64th – 48.4%) 
• Field goal percentage defense (4th – 32.9%) 
• Fouls per game (6th – 14.0) 
• Rebound margin (40th – 8.7) 
• Defensive rebounds per game (87th – 26.7) 
• Scoring defense (1st – 45.3) 
• Scoring margin (8th – +24.0) 
• Steals per game (69th – 9.3) 
• Three-point percentage defense (10th – 22.4) 
• Turnover margin (27th – +5.3) 
• Turnovers forced per game (87th – 15.7) 
• Turnovers per game (25th – 10.3) 
• Winning percentage (1st – 100%) 

Individual: 

• Rini Harris –– blocks per game (98th – 1.3), defensive rebounds per game (72nd – 6.0) 

CENTRAL MISSOURI

Team: 

• Effective field goal percentage (54th – 55.6%) 
• Field goal percentage (57th – 48.7%) 
• Three-point percentage (66th – 36.9%) 

Individual: 

• Lazerek Houston – total assists (18th – 26), assists per game (88th – 4.3), field goal attempts (8th – 87), total field goals (3rd – 44th), free throw attempts (11th – 45), total points (4th – 128), points per game (33rd – 21.3) total steals (42nd – 11) 
• Kyran Tilley – total assists (42nd – 21), field goal attempts (28th – 71), total field goals (21st – 36), total points (34th – 93) 
• Jevon Hill – field goal attempts (61st – 62), total points (60th – 85), three-point attempts (11th – 43), three-pointers per game (70th – 2.8), total three-pointers made (7th – 17) 
• Jake Fritz – total steals (58th – 10), total three-pointers made (51st – 12)

CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL 

Team: 

• Assist-to-turnover ratio (81st – 1.2) 
• Assists per game (45th – 17.0) 
• Bench points per game (45th – 33.0) 
• Effective field goal percentage (38th – 56.8%) 
• Fast break points per game (41st – 17.7) 
• Field goal percentage (77th – 44.8%) 
• Fouls per game (20th – 14.7) 
• Free throw percentage (54th – 77.3%) 
• Free throws made per game (87th – 17.0) 
• Defensive rebounds per game (99th – 26.3) 
• Scoring margin (39th – +14.0) 
• Scoring offense (64th – 86.7) 
• Total steals (32nd – 10.7) 
• Three-point percentage (7th – 45.8%) 
• Three-point percentage defense (38th – 26.5%) 
• Three-pointers per game (16th – 11.0) 
• Turnover margin (62nd – +3.3) 
• Turnovers forced per game (47th – 17.0) 
• Winning percentage (1st – 100%) 

Individual: 

• Sam West – assists per game (36th – 5.0) 
• Owen Carlson – field goal percentage (51 – 64.0%), three-point percentage (16th – 57.1%), three-pointers per game (96th – 2.7) 
• Ben Kopetzki – free throw percentage (39th – 95.7%), total free throws (73rd – 22), points per game (9th – 24.7), three pointers per game (96th – 2.7) 
• Chet Kloss – defensive rebounds per game (38th – 6.7) 

LOOKING AHEAD 

Aftter McKendree finishes up their time at the DoubleTree by Hilton Thanksgiving Classic, they will enact in a three-game GLVC stretch to open up conference play before the winter holidays. The first of which will be across the gateway at Maryville University on Saturday, November 29th at 3:00 PM at the Moloney Arena in St. Louis, Missouri. 

The contest will be streamed live and on-demand on the GLVC Sports Network via a subscription/download purchase, as live stats will also be available for fans to tune in. Tickets and further details will be provided in the coming days. 

TUNE IN-FO 

DATE	TIME (CT)	HOME TEAM	AWAY TEAM	LIVE STATS	WATCH LIVE
11/25/25	3:15 PM	Central Missouri	McKendree	STATS	WATCH ($)
11/26/25	3:15 PM	Concordia-St. Paul	McKendree	STATS	WATCH ($)

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