LEBANON, Ill. - The men's basketball team will return to the friendly confines of the Harry M. Statham Sports Center for this week's matchups with Lewis University on Thursday, February 13th, followed by the University of Indianapolis on Saturday, February 15th.
HISTORY SHOWCASE
Against Lewis, it will be the 22nd all-time meeting between the two programs, as Lewis have won seven of the last eight outings with McKendree's only win within the bunch came on January 19th, 2023, at home in Lebanon. The Flyers also came away victorious in the most recent meeting this year, winning 85-81. Lewis has an 18-3 lead in the series.
In a couple of days after facing the Flyers, McKendree will take on UIndy in their 21st matchup. Like Lewis, the Greyhounds have the better recent memory of the series in winning the last four matchups which gives them an overall 16-4 edge. The Bearcats' last win in the meeting was on March 11th, 2023, in a 77-63 victory, which was their largest margin in the entire series.
BEARCATS CURRENTLY
After coming up short in four of five games during the midst of January, McKendree has reeled off three straight victories, all of which came on the road in the past couple of weeks where they won by a combined eight-point margin. The recent successes have brought the program to 11-10 overall and 8-6 into conference play.
In Thursday's game against the University of Illinois Springfield, senior guard Joey Niesman (Oswego, Ill.) started the team right with a few volume shots to snag an early 20-8 lead over the Prairie Stars within the first several minutes. Trying to contain UIS's big man, the Bearcats kept nailing away shot after shot with notably senior guard Destin Whitaker (Romeoville, Ill.) knocking down a couple of made threes to lead 35-28 at halftime. The second half of play belonged to senior forward Hayden Meakes (Adelaide, Australia), who buried several shots from the perimeter and from mid-range along with Whitaker to hold a steady lead. The team converted on their free throws down the stretch to win the game 79-75. Meakes led the Bearcats with a career-high 20 points on 5-12 shooting, including 3-6 from three and 7-9 from the line while obtaining six rebounds and an assist. He has now scored 15+ points in his last three outings. Niesman followed suite closely with 19 points, going 7-9 from the field and 4-5 from deep while getting a trio of boards and a pair of assists. Whitaker and senior guard Kevin Stein (Chester, N.Y.) rounded out the double-figure scoring for McKendree with 11 and 13 points respectively as the latter also finished with a game-high five assists plus two rebounds.
Stein and Niesman lead the team in scoring with 15.4 and 12.7 points per game respectively with Meakes averaging 10.4 a contest. Stein's points per contest ranks 11th in the entire GLVC to go along with an 11th-best 45.7 field goal percentage. Stein also holds steady in the top five in his facilitating abilities with his assists per game (5th – 4.0), total assists (5th – 83), and assist-to-turnover ratio (5th – 2.08). Niesman still remains one of the better on-ball defenders in the conference, where he picks away 1.6 steals a game (4th in the GLVC) and totaling him at 33 (5th).
Staying on Stein, he is one of four Bearcats to play in all 21 contests thus far into the season. Within those 21 matchups, he has scored in double figures in 16, grabbed 3+ rebounds in 14, 3+ assists in 16, and shot 40% or better from the field in 15.
Whitaker – the shot maker – has appeared in 16 of the 21 outings thus far but has always been reliable from beyond the arc. In those 16 games, the senior has shot 40% or better from three-point range in 10 of them with only three games taking less than three attempts. His 2.06 makes per game places 15th in the GLVC.
The team overall is ranked in the top-five within the conference in several statistical categories, including three-point makes per game (2nd – 9.4), bench points per game (4th – 21.4), free throw percentage (4th – 75.1%) three-point percentage (4th – 37.5%), fewest turnovers per game (4th – 10.6), free throw makes per game (5th – 13.6), and turnover margin (5th – +1.8)
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Lewis University | Thursday, February 13th, 7:30 PM CT
Last Matchup: L, 81-85 on 1/5/2025 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
Lewis currently sits at 13-8 overall and 8-6 into conference play, making it a go-ahead game for McKendree with both programs posting the same GLVC record. The Flyers are having some troubles recently, losing their last two games, both being at home and falling short in four of their last five outings.
The Flyers bring in five players who average over 10 points a contest, with senior forward Rob Stroud putting up the most at 15.2 points per game as junior guard Paxton Warden averages 14.0 a game. The former's points per game rank 12th in the GLVC with his field goal percentage of 52.2% places 5th. Stroud's 7.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game ranks sixth and ninth in the conference respectively. Warden's 3.0 assists per contest places 11th while his 1.33 assist-to-turnover ratio is a 10th-best.
The Lewis program finds themselves in the top-five in the conference in free throw percentage (2nd – 79.9%), free throw makes per game (2nd – 16.7), rebounding margin (3rd – +5.0), field goal percentage (4th – 48.4%), free throw attempts per game (4th – 20.9) and scoring margin (5th – +3.0). Their 79.9% free throw percentage is ranked 7th in the entire nation.
University of Indianapolis | Saturday, February 15th, 2:00 PM CT
Last Matchup: L, 71-75 on 1/3/2025 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
UIndy is at a solid 13-10 on the season with a 7-8 record into conference play. They encountered a pair of close games in their most recent week in hosting the two schools from St. Louis. The Greyhounds beat Maryville University on Thursday 81-80 before falling to the University of Missouri-St. Louis 70-71 on Saturday. They will take on the University of Illinois Springfield this coming Thursday before facing McKendree.
With a roster that has only 10 players participating this season with eight playing in at least 22 of their 23 contests, only three Greyhounds are averaging double-figures. Junior guard Dashawn Jackson leads the way with 15.4 points a game as senior guard Brody Whitaker follows closely with 14.4 points a game. Jackson's scoring averages rank 10th in the conference as his 2.39 made three-pointers a contest places 12th in the GLVC.
The UIndy team is a top-three best in the GLVC in several statistical categories, including free throw attempts per game (2nd – 21.9), offensive rebounds per game (2nd – 11.8), fewest turnovers per game (2nd – 9.8), bench points per game (3rd – 21.7), free throw makes per game (3rd – 15.8), three-point attempts per game (3rd – 26.8), and turnover margin (3rd – +2.6).
TUNE IN-FO
vs Lewis University
WATCH: Click HERE ($ – GLVC Sports Network)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
HISTORY: Click HERE
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [Lewis]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [Lewis]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [Lewis]
vs University of Indianapolis
WATCH: Click HERE ($ – GLVC Sports Network)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
HISTORY: Click HERE
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [UIndy]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [UIndy]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [UIndy]
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