Game Notes (PDF)

Date: February 13, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Liberty, MO 

Liberty, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (17-5, 10-4 GLVC) hits the road after a long home stand. They will take on the William Jewell Cardinals Thursday evening.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
After going 8-2 in the month of January with huge wins against #12 Southern Indiana, #1 Bellarmine, and Drury, the Bearcats are off to a 2-1 start in February. SBU's 4 conference losses have come against Drury, #23 Missouri-St. Louis who is now ranked #19, Indianapolis who first upset #1 Bellarmine, and Lewis who won the GLVC regular season last year. Quinn Nelson and Damian Prgomet have each been earned GLVC Players of the week this season. The team has been passing the ball well, ranking 3rd in the conference in assists with 16.09 per game.

In their most recent competition, SBU fell to a good Lewis team. The Bearcats struggled to find the bottom of the net, shooting 31.8% from the field and 15.4% from three. On the other side, the Flyers were hot, shooting 58.8% from the field and 50.0% from three. Kent Thomas led SBU off the bench, scoring a career high 14 points in 15 minutes.

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 CARDINALS
The William Jewell Cardinals (Liberty, MO) come into Thursday's matchup with a 9-13 (4-10 GLVC) record. WJC started the year very hot, beating Central Oklahoma and Central Missouri who handed #1 Northwest Missouri their only loss of the year. However, the next game they fell to #1 ranked Northwest Missouri. In their first conference game, the Cardinals fell to Rockhurst 48-79. They picked up their first GLVC win over Quincy in early January, 86-74. Their other conference wins include Maryville, Missouri S&T, and #12 Bellarmine. Eysan Wiley leads the team with 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest, leading the GLVC. The teams met last season where WJC won 91-81, Wiley scoring 12 points with 6 rebounds. Byron Harp was the biggest factor in that game, scoring 36 points with 6 assists, but has since graduated.

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 40 athletes that have moved on to play professional basketball.

Chris McCabe enters his first season as the head coach for the Cardinals, taking the position on April 29, 2019. McCabe is making the jump from the high school level, where he coached Liberty North HS for 9 seasons. In that span, McCabe led the team to a 158-94 record, with 8 district final appearances.

ALL-TIME SERIES
The all-time series is tied 4-4. The teams met last season in Bolivar, SBU falling 81-91. The Cardinals had a senior who scored 36 points and dished out 6 assists. Quinn Nelson had 15 points in that game, all three-pointers.