Game Notes (PDF)

Date: January 14, 2021
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Kansas City, MO 

Bolivar, Mo. - After a four game home stretch, the Bearcats (6-2, 6-2 GLVC) will hit the road for their second matchup against the Rockhurst Hawks (4-4, 4-4 GLVC) on Thursday. Game time has been moved from 7:30 PM to 5:30 PM.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
The Bearcats were riding a 5 game winning streak that came to an end Tuesday afternoon. Southern Indiana came to Bolivar and nearly blew a 17-point lead, but held on to defeat SBU 84-77. Their other loss came on the road against Missouri-St. Louis who has spent time in the national rankings this season. For the third straight week, SBU received votes in the NABC Coaches poll, upping their votes from 10 to 14.

SBU is near the top in the conference in scoring defense (71.8 ppg) and second in scoring margin (+7.1). Their free throw percentage of 79.5% ranks first in the GLVC, field goal percentage (48.1%) ranks 4th, and field goal percentage defense (41.0%) is 2nd. Brady Smith is averaging 17.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, both lead the team. Quinn Nelson is the team's deep threat, making 18 three's on the season. He is averaging 15.9 points per game. Mitch Ganote is also averaging double digits at 12.3 points per game on 57.4% shooting from the field. He also leads the team with 37 assists and just 17 turnovers.

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) head into Thursday's matchup with a 4-4 (4-4 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. They then went on a three game skid, falling to UMSL, SBU, and Lewis. Most recently, the Hawks bounced back, defeating Missouri S&T 74-53. Rockhurst is 11th in the conference in scoring offense (74.2 ppg), 8th in scoring defense (75.6 ppg), and 13th in field goal percentage (41.4%). Chris Hamil and Curtis Lewis are the only Hawks averaging double digits at 13.9 and 13.8 points per game respectively.

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 22-32 with a 1-2 record since joining the GLVC. Last season the Hawks took both games, but the Bearcats won the first matchup of the 2020-21 season. In that game, Mitch Ganote nearly had a triple-double, scoring 20 points, dishing 11 assists, and snagging 9 rebounds. Brady Smith added 19 points and Quinn Nelson had 16 points in the victory.