Game Notes

Date: February 6, 2020
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Bolivar, MO 

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (16-4, 9-3 GLVC) continues their home stretch, hosting Illinois Springfield Thursday after completing the season sweep of Missouri S&T on Saturday.

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 1-0 start in February. SBU's 3 conference losses came against Drury, #23 Missouri-St. Louis who is now ranked #9, and Indianapolis who first upset #1 Bellarmine. Quinn Nelson and Damian Prgomet have each been earned GLVC Players of the week this season. The team currently ranks 2nd in the conference in field goal percentage at .497, and 4th in three point field goal percentage at .393.

In their most recent competition, SBU defeated Missouri S&T by 17 points, 93-76. Damian Prgomet and Brady Smith combined for 33 points and 13 rebounds. The team shot 54.7% from the field, their 7th game in a row shooting above 50%.

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 PRAIRIE STARS
The Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars (Springfield, Illinois) head into Thursday's matchup with a 12-8 (5-7 GLVC) record. They started the year 5-0 before falling to Northwest Missouri State 56-91. UIS has beaten Indianapolis twice, and Bellarmine once. The game against Bellarmine was won on a three pointer at the buzzer, and the most recent matchup with Indianapolis went to overtime. Currently riding a three game winnings streak, UIS previously lost five in a row, including losses to Rockhurst, Truman State, Quincy, Lewis, and UMSL. Daniel Soetan leads the team with 17.9 points per game (5th in GLVC) and is also averaging 6.6 rebounds. The leading rebounder for the team is Keymonta Johnson, averaging 7.1 per contest.

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.

Matt Brock begins his first year on the UIS bench after spending the previous 4 seasons as the head coach at Missouri Baptist. While there, Brock led the team to an 87-40 record. Last season, the team was the #1 defense in the NAIA and finished with a 28-5 record. He also led the team to a 20-win season in 2017-18.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Thursday will mark the first meeting between the teams.