LEBANON, Ill. – The (RV) men's basketball team comes back home this week for a pair of conference contests, as they will take on Southwest Baptist University in a Bearcat brawl on Thursday, January 15th, followed by the program's Alumni Day on Saturday, January 17th against Drury University. 

Fans can watch both games live or on-demand on McKendree's GLVC Sports Network with a subscription/download purchase required. Live stats will also be made available to  

[Southwest Baptist] [Drury] 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTINGS 

The McKendree men's basketball  made an historic moment in part of their two-game stretch in the Show-Me state of Missouri as they made their best overall start to a season (11-3) after beating Truman State University on Thursday, January 8th, but ultimately fell in their next game at William Jewell College that Saturday, January 10th to split the week.  

At Truman State, the opposition drew first blood with a lay-in, but was immediately responded to by a flaming 10-0 run by the Bearcats over the course of two minutes exactly, with redshirt sophomore Jakob Fredricksen (Elizabethtown, Ky.) knocking down his third career three-pointer as senior guard Cha'Vez Woods cashed in on his 73rd as a Bearcat. After a 7-2 run and a six-point spurt Woods took matters into his own hands by dropping eight of his team's next 10 points to go up 25-18, as a little over a minute later, redshirt sophomore guard Grant Fridley (Trenton, Ill.) swished in back-to-back shots with one coming in from long distance and extend the lead to eight. A couple more shots from Woods, including a beautiful up-and-under move from nine feet out helped keep McKendree ahead as a dribble handoff by Fredricksen found himself inside for an easy two as the road Bearcats held a 37-33 advantage heading into halftime. Coming out of the long break, the Bearcats did not take their foot off the pedal, as a layup from sophomore forward Joshua Schönbäck (Kierling, Austria) gave McKendree their largest lead at nine points a little over four minutes in. The Bulldogs would not go away, as they clawed back to a four-point deficit soon after, but an open look three-ball and a tip-in layup from Harris halted their momentum. Heading down the final three-minute stretch, Schönbäck went into takeover mode by weaving his way towards the basket from the corner for the easy two and knocked down his second three-pointer of the season from the opposite corner to put McKendree's lead to a comfortable 14. Holding serve with the intentional fouling by Truman State, the Bearcats would go on to steal their fifth true road win of the season, beating the Bulldogs 73-62. Woods led the Bearcats with 18 points with a pair of triples to go with seven rebounds, a steal, and a team-high five assists Harris followed with 12 points with too seven boards, as he stuffed the stat sheet with a trio of assists, two takeaways, and a block. Schönbäck rounded out the double-figure scoring with a McKendree-high 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting (90.0%), plus five rebounds, a steal, and a blocked shot. 

In the following game at William Jewell, guard Andrew Moore (Montgomery County, Mo.) knocked down a trio of triples for the Bearcats to give them their first nine points in the road matchup. That would be the only points McKendree was able to muster up as WJC utilized a 8-0 responding spurt to take their first lead of the game. With 12 minutes left to play in the initial half, the Bearcats would regain control as sophomore forward Wyatt Zellers (Scottsburg, Ind.) gave his squad their fourth three-pointer already as senior guard Caleb Burton (O'Fallon, Ill.) and Joshua Schönbäck swerved their way inside for a couple easy layups. A step-back triple for WJC sunk through to cut their deficit to 28-31 at the half. That shot carried momentum into the second half of play with a 15-1 run to take a 10-point lead. McKendree finally connected on their first made field goal in the second half with redshirt freshman guard Jackson Wors (Muncie, Ind.) made an up-and-under scoop layup almost eight minutes in. Down by double digits with a little over six and a half minutes remaining, Cha'Vez Woods and Rini Harris catapulted the Bearcats back within contention with Woods converting on an and-one opportunity while Harris stretched outside the paint for a couple of buckets to tie the game up at 58 apiece with 1:54 left on the clock. A few missed opportunities would eventually doom the squad as they had to turn their attention to intentional fouling, where WJC made do on their free throws and came away with handing McKendree a close 60-64 loss on the road. Harris led all Bearcats with 14 points, plus seven rebounds, two steals, and a block. Moore matched his scoring average with 11 points in the game, going 4-for-9 (44.4%) from the field and 3-for-5 (60.0%) from deep, as he also came away with six boards, a pair of assists, and a blocked shot as well. 

HISTORY SHOWCASE 

Against Southwest Baptist, this will be the 10th meeting as a member of NCAA Division II, as McKendree has won the previous four straight by an average of 16.3 points. SBU has the 3-1 advantage on McKendree's home floor, as the latter earned its first win in such situation in March of last season. McKendree currently holds the 5-4 lead overall in the series that dates back to 2019-20. 

Against Drury, it will be the 15th meeting between the two schools. The Panthers took the last outing in Springfield, Missouri, but the Bearcats came away victorious in their two prior, which included their largest margin of victory, when they won 76-56 (+20) at Drury. Since the first meeting in February of 2014, Drury has led the series 10-4. 

KNOW THE FOES 

The visiting Bearcats, who were picked last in this year's GLVC Preseason Coaches' Poll have exceeded expectations quite a bit thus far midway through the season. They sit at 9-6 overall and have a 3-4 posting in GLVC action. SBU dropped two of their last three after winning four straight, including faltering by 32 at home against the University of Missouri-St. Louis. 

The Panthers are trying to find their consistency, as they have not won back-to-back games since opening the season at 4-0. Picked fifth in this year's poll, Drury most recently rebounded with an 85-79 win on their home floor against the conference defending champion Lincoln University (Mo.) Blue Tigers, after falling by just two points to then-No.16 Missouri S&T two days prior in Springfield. 

THE DEFENSIVE DISH 

As of Tuesday, January 13th, the Bearcats are back to leading the nation across all of NCAA Division II in field goal percentage defense, allowing only 36.5% of opponents' shots to go in. That is exactly 3.0% greater than the next-best GLVC team in the rankings, which happens to be Missouri S&T at 23rd with a 39.5 percentage. 

McKendree is also holding firm in scoring defense as well, being 5th in the division and allowing only 60.8 points per game in 15 contests so far. It is 2.0 points behind the nation's leading team (Ouachita Baptist – 58.8). 

KEEP ON POLLING BABY 

McKendree this week, has shown up once again on the national scale within the NABC Coaches Poll by receiving votes (three total points). 

It is the third consecutive week the team made an appearance in the poll, which is conducted by 16 members of the NABC, with two representing each of the eight NCAA Division II regions. It is also the fourth time overall this season that the Bearcats were listed. 

COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS 

It would be hard to find a more disciplined down the final stretches than this McKendree team, as the Bearcats are a perfect 10-0 when obtaining the lead with two minutes to go in regulation. They have come back once when trailing at that mark, but have eventually fallen in the four other times when down.  

To make it even more impressive, McKendree is also an unblemished 11-0 when being up ahead with five minutes left in regulation, matching their overall win total. The times when they are in a deficit?... 0-4. 

NCAA'S TOP 100 (as of 1/13/26) 

McKENDREE 

Team: 

• Effective field goal percentage (94th – 52.9%) 
• Field goal percentage (71st – 47.0%) 
• Field goal percentage defense (1st – 36.5%) 
• Fouls per game (94th – 16.45 
• Rebound margin (52nd – +5.87 
• Defensive rebounds per game (32nd – 28.1) 
• Scoring defense (5th – 60.8) 
• Scoring margin (40th  – +10.8) 
• Three-point percentage defense (59th – 30.3%) 
• Turnovers per game (51st – 11.7) 
• Winning percentage (45th – 73.3%) 

Individual: 

• Rini Harris –– field goal percentage (74th – 52.8%) 

SOUTHWEST BAPTIST 

Team: 

• Effective field goal percentage (85th – 53.1%) 
• Field goal percentage defense (38th – 40.4%) 
• Fouls per game (4th – 13.4) 
• Rebound margin (74th – 4.3) 
• Scoring defense (31st – 67.0) 
• Three-point percentage (89th – 35.1%) 
• Three-point percentage defense (71st – 30.8%) 

Individual: 

• Zac Reedus –– free throw attempts (35th – 102), total free throws (73rd – 67) 
• Barron Silsby –– Three-point percentage (58th – 38.8%), three-pointers made per game (78th – 2.5) 

DRURY 

Team: 

• Assist-to-turnover ratio (97th – 1.2) 
• Assists per game (78th – 15.3) 
• Blocks per game (80th – 3.7) 
• Free throw percentage (64th – 74.4%) 
• Offensive rebounds per game (68th – 12.7) 
• Scoring offense (58th – 82.8) 
• Steals per game (53rd – 9.0) 
• Three-point percentage (80th – 35.3%) 
• Three-pointers per game (81st – 8.7) 
• Turnover margin (85th – 1.5) 
• Turnovers forced per game (81st – 14.7) 

Individual: 

• Keion Epps –– total assets (67th – 63), assist per game (23rd – 5.3) 
• Colin Hardick –– total field goal attempts (73rd – 199), minutes per game (64th – 34:21) 
• KeShaun Thomas –– total free throw attempts (59th – 91), total free throws made (39th – 75)  
• Zach Howell –– free throw percentage (94th – 84.8%), three-point attempts (43rd – 105), three-point percentage (9th – 47.6%), three-pointers per game (13th – 3.3), total three-pointer made (8th – 50) 

LOOKING AHEAD 

After the two-game homestand, McKendree will return to the state of Missouri to tack on two more GLVC opponents, as they will begin at No.12 Missouri S&T on Thursday, January 22nd at 7:30 PM CT, and will follow at the defending conference champion Lincoln University (Mo.) on Saturday, January 24th at 3:00 PM CT. 

Both contests will be streamed live and on-demand on the respective institution's GLVC Sports Network via a subscription/download purchase, as live stats will also be available for fans to tune in. Ticket information will be made public soon. 

TUNE IN-FO 

DATE	TIME (CT)	HOME TEAM	AWAY TEAM	LIVE STATS	WATCH LIVE
1/15/26	7:30 PM	McKendree	Southwest Baptist	STATS	WATCH ($)
1/17/26	3:00 PM	McKendree	Drury	STATS	WATCH ($)

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