Game Notes (PDF)

Date: February 27, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Bolivar, MO 

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (19-7, 12-6 GLVC) returns home for their last series of the regular season, hosting Rockhurst on Thursday.

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 4-3 record in February. SBU's 6 conference losses have come against Drury, #23 Missouri-St. Louis who is now ranked #18, Indianapolis who first upset #1 Bellarmine, Lewis who won the GLVC regular season last year, Rockhurst and Truman State on the road. Quinn Nelson and Damian Prgomet have each been earned GLVC Players of the week this season. The team leads the conference in blocked shots, averaging 3.85 blocks per game.

In their most recent competition, SBU fell to Truman State on the road, a team who has sat at the top of the GLVC most of the season. Mitch Ganote led the Bearcats in points, rebounds, and assists with 12, 6, and 3 respectively. Damian Prgomet and Quinn Nelson also hit double digits, scoring 11 and 10 points.

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 HAWKS
The Rockhurst Hawks (Kansas City, MO) head into Thursday's matchup with a 15-11 (11-7 GLVC) record. Early in the season, they defeated a solid Washburn team 57-55 and Emoria State 109-100 in double overtime. They are 3-1 against MIAA teams this year. Rockhurst also handed top-ranked Truman State one of their losses, defeating the Bulldogs 56-53 on January 4, and beat #12 ranked Bellarmine at home earlier in the season. Rockhurst has lost their past two games, falling to Lindenwood 77-86 and UMSL 49-67. The Hawks have 3 players averaging 14+ points per game, Curtis Lewis (15.8), Quinton Curry (15.3), and Chris Hamil (14.3). Curry leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game.

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.

Drew Diener enters his fifth season as the head coach for Rockhurst. In his four seasons there, Diener has led the Hawks to a 57-54 record. Last season, Rockhurst finished 17-12. He led the team to their first winning record (2016-17) in 7 seasons, and led them to their first conference tournament (2015-16) in 6 seasons.

ALL-TIME SERIES
SBU trails the all-time series 21-31 with the last matchup taking place just a couple of weeks ago. In that matchup, Rockhurst came from behind to win 73-64. Joe Miller and Damian Prgomet both had 13 points in the loss.