Game Notes (PDF)

Date: January 9, 2021
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Bolivar, MO 

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist (5-1, 5-1 GLVC) wraps up this home stretch with a weekend rematch against the Cardinals of William Jewell. These teams met on December 18 in Liberty, MO, where the Bearcats defeated the Cardinals 89-71.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
SBU opened the season 1-1, defeating Missouri S&T and falling to nationally ranked Missouri-St. Louis on the road. In their home opener against Rockhurst, Mitch Ganote had a near triple-double which led the Bearcats to a 91-83 victory. SBU defeated William Jewell 89-71 on the road just before the break. The Bearcats have opened 2021 with two solid victories over former MIAA foe Lindenwood and Indianapolis. SBU fell twice to UINDY last year, one of those games coming in the GLVC Conference Tournament. The Bearcats fought back from multiple 11-point deficits to win 64-58.

On the season, SBU is averaging 80.0 points per game on 50.4% shooting from the field. They have a scoring margin of +8.7 and are holding their opponents to 40.8% shooting. Brady Smith is 10th in the GLVC standings in points per game with 17.0, and 12th in field goal percentage at 53.1%. Mitch Ganote ranks 6th in the conference in assists, dishing 4.33 per contest.

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 CARDINALS
The William Jewell Cardinals (Liberty, MO) come into Saturday's matchup with a 1-5 record. In their season opener, the Cardinals upset the Indianapolis Greyhounds on their court, 70-69. Two days later, WJC began their 5-game losing streak, falling to #25 Southern Indiana by 30 points. On December 16, they played an exhibition matchup against Missouri State in Springfield, falling to the Bears by just 9 points in the 64-73 final. Since that exhibition, WJC has lost to SBU, Missouri S&T, Missouri-St. Louis, and #13 Truman State. The Bulldogs of Truman State narrowly escaped a loss, winning that game 82-77. Grant Stubbs had a double-double in the first matchup, scoring 18 points and 12 rebounds. Against TSU, Eysan Wiley and Mason Alexander combined for 44 points and 9 rebounds.

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.

Chris McCabe begins just his second season at William Jewell. McCabe led the Cardinals to double digit wins last year, their third straight year doing such. Prior to WJC, McCabe coached at Liberty North HS, just across town. He coached at Liberty North for 9 seasons.

ALL-TIME SERIES
SBU leads the all-time series with WJC, 7-4. The Bearcats swept the two-game series last year, defeating the Cardinals 76-65 on the road earlier in the season, and 71-66 in Bolivar for SBU's last regular season game. In that second game, Joe Miller hit three three's helping reach 15 points along with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Brady Smith also had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. In December's meeting, SBU went on a 26-6 run to end the first half, leading to an 89-71 victory. The scoring was pretty evenly distributed, as 5 Bearcats hit double digits. Freshman Ricky Crawford Jr. scored 16 points, snagged 5 rebounds, dished 2 assists, and had 2 steals.