Game Notes

Date: January 18, 2020
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: St. Louis, Mo. 

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (11-3, 4-2 GLVC) will continue their road trip to St. Louis to play Maryville after edging out Missouri S&T on Thursday

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
The Bearcats are coming off a solid win against Missouri S&T to improve to 11-3 (4-2 GLVC) this season. One of their biggest wins came against #12 Southern Indiana on the road. Damian Prgomet was recently named GLVC Player of the Week. He ranks 3rd in blocks in SBU history, and currently holds the highest field goal percentage in SBU history. All 5 Bearcats in the starting lineup are averaging 10+ points per game.

In their most recent competition, the Bearcats edged out Missouri S&T 75-71. SBU found themselves trailing at the half, but the three ball and solid defense helped turn things around. All 5 starters finished with double digit points, Quinn Nelson leading the charge with 20 on 7-10 shooting. The team shot a combined 52.8% from the field. Damian Prgomet led two categories, rebounds (6) and assists (4) along with Mitch Ganote.

The Bearcats come into the 2019-20 season following an appearance in the MIAA Tournament last season. Finishing with a 13-15 (7-12 MIAA) regular season record, the Bearcats received the #10 seed in the conference tournament. In the first round, SBU edged out #7 Lindenwood 76-75, becoming the first #10 seed to win a game in the MIAA Tournament and picking up their first conference tournament win since 2006. Washburn put an end to SBU's run in the second round with a 77-58 final score. The Bearcats are now full-time member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference which consists of 16 teams. Lindenwood is also making the move from the MIAA to the GLVC. Three starters return for SBU, Godfrey Rolle, Damian Prgomet, and Quinn Nelson. In addition to those three starters, Tyler Williams and Lucas Brueggemann also return from last year's roster. This year's roster consists of 16 total players, 11 of those being new faces. The breakdown of the roster is 2 seniors, 5 juniors, 4 sophomores, and 5 freshmen. 

SCOUTING THE SAINTS
The Maryville Saints (St. Louis, MO) head into Saturday's matchup with a 4-9 (0-6 GLVC) record. Early in the season, the Saints fell to Hannibal-LaGrange 65-75, a team SBU beat 89-72. Maryville found themselves in the win column against a good Lincoln team, 65-61. The Saints are currently riding a 5 game losing streak, most recently falling to Drury by just 5 points. In that game, Maryville outscored Drury 43-36 in the second half, but it was a deadly three with 25 seconds left that sealed the victory for Drury. The Saints have two players averaging nearly identical points per game, Parker Long with 14.8 and Jalen Gant with 14.7. Gant leads the team in rebounds per game with 6.9.

THE COACHES
SBU head coach Clark Sheehy begins his sixth season on the SBU bench after compiling a 62-83 (32-66 MIAA) record while at SBU. Coach Sheehy holds a career coaching record of 244-189 across fourteen seasons while coaching six different All-Americans and over 22 athletes that have moved on to play professional basketball.

Marc Stricker returns as the head coach for the Saints, his third season in the position. In the 2017-18 season, Stricker led the Saints to a 20-8 (12-6 GLVC) record and a GLVC division title. The year prior to Stricker, Maryville had just 9 wins. Last season, the Saints fell to 9-18 (4-14 GLVC).

ALL-TIME SERIES
Southwest Baptist leads the all-time series against Maryville 3-0, 2-0 during Coach Sheehy's time.