Game Notes (PDF)

Date: December 16, 2020
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Bolivar, MO 

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (1-1, 1-1 GLVC) returns home after two games on the road to open the season. The Rockhurst Hawks will visit Bolivar for SBU's home opener Wednesday afternoon. 

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
After beginning the season with a win over Missouri S&T, the Bearcats fell just short of Missouri-St. Louis on the road, 63-71. The Tritons began the season ranked #9 in the country, but fell out of the top 25 in the recent rankings, still receiving votes in the latest poll.

The Bearcats are coming off their best season in program history since 2009-10. Last year, the Bearcats finished 20-9 (13-7 GLVC). In the regular season rankings, the Bearcats finished fourth out of the sixteen GLVC teams. They upset #12 Southern Indiana and #1 Bellarmine both on the road, and defeated Drury at home for the first time in eight years. Eight players return from last year's roster. Second team All-GLVC honoree Brady Smith returns for his senior campaign. Two other starters from last season also return in juniors Quinn Nelson and Joe Miller. Sophomore Mitch Ganote was SBU's sixth man last season, and will play quite a bit during the 2020-21 season. The Bearcats will see several other new faces make an impact as well.

SCOUTING THE HAWKS
The Rockhurst Hawks (Kansas City, MO) will visit Bolivar, MO with a 3-2 (3-2 GLVC) record so far this season. They began the season with an upset victory over #25 Southern Indiana on the road, 81-70. McKendree then beat the Hawks 87-75 in Kansas City. After starting 1-1, the Hawks had two narrow victories over Illinois Springfield and Missouri S&T before falling to Missouri-St. Louis, 77-82. Chris Hamil is averaging 19.0 points and 4.4 rebounds per contest. Four other Hawks are averaging double-digit points, with three of those four right at 10. Quinton Curry has been hitting the boards hard, averaging 8.0 rebounds per game and has 6 blocks on the season.

THE COACHES
SBU head coach Clark Sheehy begins his seventh season on the SBU bench after compiling an 82-92 (45-73 conf.) record while at SBU. Coach Sheehy holds a career coaching record of 264-198 across fifteen seasons while coaching six different All-Americans and over 40 athletes that have moved on to play professional basketball.

Drew Diener begins his sixth season as the head coach of the Hawks. In his first five seasons at Rockhurst, he led the team to a 73-67 record. Last season, Diener led the Hawks to a 17-12 record. In 2016-17, Diener led the team to their first winning season in seven seasons

ALL-TIME SERIES
SBU trails the all-time series 21-32. In the last five matchups, the Hawks have taken three, including both meetings last season. The first game was a 64-73 finish, and the second ended with a score of 58-63. In the first meeting last year, Joe Miller's shooting was perfect, going 5-5 from the field, 2-2 from three, and 1-1 from the free throw line.