LEBANON, Ill. - The men's basketball team earned their way into postseason play as they will take on No.10 Missouri S&T in the GLVC Championship Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, March 6th at 12:00 PM CT.
The Bearcats will be the eighth seed in the tournament, while the Miners will be the one. All games within the postseason event will be at the Hyland Arena on the campus of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.
All live stats can be found here as tickets can be purchased here and doors open one hour prior to session start time. Live streaming will be through the GLVC Sports network and can be watched online, on your streaming device, or in the GLVCSN app with a subscription required of $12 per game or $35 for the full tournament. Be sure to check out the GLVC's tournament central for more information!
HISTORY SHOWCASE
Against Missouri S&T, it will be the 16th all-time meeting between the two programs dating back to 2014. The Miners came away victorious on McKendree's home floor, 84-69 earlier this season on January 25th as they won five of the last six meetings. Currently, Missouri S&T holds a 10-5 edge in the series as this will be the first time the two programs will meet on neutral grounds.
BEARCATS CURRENTLY
McKendree finished off the regular season with a pair of wins at home against Rockhurst University and then Southwest Baptist University on senior day. They will head into the tournament with a 14-13 overall record and an 11-9 mark in GLVC play.
Against Rockhurst on Thursday, junior forward Noah Franklin (Cobden, Ill.) gave the Bearcats a couple of layups to start out before both teams went a bit cold from the field. The Hawks went on a 15-7 run later on before senior guard Joey Niesman (Oswego, Ill.) got some shots to go in including a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the half tied at 24-all. McKendree's guard in sophomore Luka Mateski (Belgrade, Serbia) and junior Cha'Vez Woods (Louisville, Ky.) got hot to start the second half with the former putting in nine points within the first six minutes of such. Rockhurst kept creeping on the Bearcats lead and eventually tying the game up before Niesman drove it inside for a layup with only seconds remaining to eventually win the game 67-65. Mateski led the Bearcats in scoring with 17 points on 6-10 shooting, including going 2-3 from three as he grabbed two rebounds, two steals, and a steal. Niesman followed with 14 points, going 6-9 from the field and 2-3 from deep as well to go along with four rebounds, a pair of blocks, and an assist. Woods also tabbed in 14 points with his 4-6 mark from three and 5-8 shooting overall.
On Saturday against Southwest Baptist on senior day, Woods would be the one who gets hot early as he continued his efficient shooting stretch from beyond the arc but would still be down by four in the early goings. Niesman got his team into the lead with an 11-0 run via his eight points within in order to take a 35-26 edge at halftime. Senior guard Destin Whitaker came into half number two hitting back-to-back triples to extend McKendree's lead to 20. A ferocious dunk but Franklin and a three-pointer by freshman guard Grant Fridley (Trenton, Ill.) sealed the deal to take the 76-54 win.
Stein and Niesman lead the team in scoring with 14.2 and 12.3 points per game respectively. The former has a GLVC 12th-best 45.8 field goal percentage. Stein also holds steady in the top six in his facilitating abilities with his assists per game (6th – 3.9), total assists (6th – 104), and assist-to-turnover ratio (5th – 2.04). Niesman still remains one of the better on-ball defenders in the conference, where he picks away 1.6 steals a game (6th in the GLVC) and totaling him at 42 (6th). Niesman's 4.5 rebounds a contest also comes in at 13th in the GLVC.
Remaining with Stein, he is one of three Bearcats to play in all 27 contests thus far into the season. Within those 27 matchups, he has scored in double figures in 19, grabbed 3+ rebounds in 19, 3+ assists in 21, and shot 40% or better from the field in 19.
The team overall is ranked in the top-five within the conference in several statistical categories, including three-point percentage (2nd – 38.2%), three-point percentage defense (3rd – 32.9%), three-point makes per game (3rd – 9.7), scoring defense (4th – 71.7 ppg), turnovers per game (4th – 10.3), bench points per game (5th – 21.2), effective FG percentage (5th – 54.9%), and free throw percentage (5th – 74.6%).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
No.10 Missouri S&T | Thursday, March 6th, 12:00 PM CT
Last Matchup: L, 69-84 on 1/25/2025 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
Missouri S&T – the number 10 team in the entire country per the new NABC Coaches Poll – lost in their most recent outing at Drury University on Saturday after winning the prior four games. They compiled a 23-4 record during the whole regular season and earned the number one seed for the tournament with a 17-3 mark in conference play.
The Miners have three double-digit scorers on their squad headlined by one of the GLVC's most dominant big men in junior forward Andrew Young. He scores 16.8 points and grabs 7.8 rebounds per game, which both leads the team. Young's scoring also ranks sixth in the whole conference while his rebounding places fourth and 1.6 blocks per game is third.
Missouri S&T's second leading scorer in senior guard Lovell Williams drops in 13.5 points a night and has the conference's seventh best field goal percentage of 51.1%, behind Young's second best of 57.0%. Williams also ranks 2nd in the GLVC in assisting (5.5), seventh in blocking (1.0), and seventh in stealing (1.5).
As a collective unit, the Miners are a GLVC-best (1st) in several categories, including Blocks per game (4.1), effective field goal percentage (56.0%), field goal percentage (50.2%), least fouls per game (13.7), defensive rebounds per game (27.9), scoring margin (+11.7), and scoring offense (84.8 ppg).
TUNE IN-FO
Click HERE to take you to the Tournament Central: 2025 GLVC Championship Tournament
vs No.10 Missouri S&T
WATCH: Click HERE ($ – GLVC Sports Network)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
HISTORY: Click HERE
TEAM GUIDES
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [Missouri S&T]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [Missouri S&T]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [Missouri S&T]
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