BOLIVAR, Mo. – The RV men's basketball team put a bow to their historic regular season show on Saturday, February 28th in a Bearcat battle against Southwest Baptist University at the Meyer Sports Center, where McKendree would fall by just one in a hard-fought battle down the final stretch.
Score: McKendree University 63, Southwest Baptist University 64
Record: McK Bearcats 21-7, 14-6 GLVC | SBU Bearcats 14-14, 8-12 GLVC
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both Bearcat teams battled in the first six minutes of action with neither side gaining more than a three-point edge. That was not until senior guard Caleb Burton (O'Fallon, Ill.) floated one inside as sophomore forward Joshua Schönbäck (Kierling, Austria) drew the contact and converted on an and-one opportunity to go up by four.
SBU was quick to claw back ahead, but with McKendree still keeping within striking distance, before the visitors had their best run yet by going 10-3 over two minutes of play as Schönbäck kept his presence felt from the arc and in the paint with five more points, with freshman guard Andrew Moore (Montgomery County, Mo.) contributing himself from deep. Another driving layup by Burton was able to knot the game at 32-all heading into the final stretch of the first half.
McKendree would acquire some much-needed momentum, as Moore intercepted the ball on the defensive end for a pick-six play with a throwdown hammer on the breakaway. With SBU cutting back to within one via free throws with four ticks left, the other O'Fallon guard, Rini Harris, drove coast-to-coast for the buzzer-beating lay-in to give his team the 36-33 lead heading into the extended break.
The long range and paint touches carried way into the second half for the visiting bearcats, with Moore canning another triple with sophomore forward Wyatt Zellers (Scottsburg, Ind.) getting himself on the board with a three-ball of his own to take a seven-point lead. Those two would carry the load for the next seven minutes of play by burying a bucket each while SBU enacted on a 14-5 spurt to take a two-point edge with seven and a half minutes to go.
Burton bullied his way to take back the lead after an old-fashioned three-point play with Moore and Harris getting their way into the interior whenever possible.
Free throws during the final moments played the ultimate factor in the outcome, as it started with SBU unintentionally fouling Harris with 36 seconds remaining, where the sophomore split the pair to cut McKendree's deficit to one. Burton inadvertently was called for the foul on the defensive end, to which SBU also split on their pair from the stripe to go back up two. Moore was fouled off a curl to prevent a layup, as the freshman canned both his shots from the line to tie the game at 63. A whistle on a SBU shot attempt with five ticks left sent the home Bearcats' big man to the line and once again splitting the pair. Fifth-year forward, and former SBU player, Noah Franklin (Cobden, Ill.) missed the basket on a last-second shot attempt from distance, giving SBU the 64-63 edge to wrap up GLVC regular season play.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• Moore led the game with 18 points with 7-for-12 (58.3%) shooting from the floor and an even 2-for-4 (50.0%) from three, plus three boards and a steal.
• Harris was the lone other double-figure scorer with 11 points on 5-for-7 scoring (71.4%) with a team-high seven boards and stuffed the stat sheet with a trio of assists, a takeaway, and a block.
• Zellers, Schönbäck, and Burton each put in three field goals for 24 combined points, as Zellers sunk three shots from beyond the arc and Schönbäck corralled six rebounds.
• McKendree shot 49.1% from the field, 28.6% from deep, and 41.7% from the line.
• Despite the loss, the McKendree outrebounded SBU 35-27.
• McKendree had the edge in second chance points (6-5), bench points (19-11), points in the paint (38-18), and fast break points (13-3).
• McKendree has never had 20+ wins in regular season in their NCAA Division II era.
UP NEXT
McKendree will be back in action for their seventh-ever (and sixth consecutive) GLVC Championship Tournament, which will be held from March 5th through 8th at the Mark Twain Building on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
In the first matchup, the Bearcats will be the six-seed and face the three-seed University of Illinois Springfield on Friday, March 6th at 7:45 PM CT. Should they advance, they would play at the same time on Saturday against the winner of William Jewell College or Upper Iowa University in semifinal action, with the championship game at 3:30 PM CT on Sunday.
All tournament contests can be tuned in live or on-demand on GLVC Sports Network with a subscription/download purchase required, as live stats will also be provided. Tickets can be purchased at glvcsports.com when made available.
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