Bolivar, Mo. – The SBU Men's Basketball team was at home for the first time in the 2021-22 season, playing host to the Barclay Bears. For the first time since February 29, 2020, the team played in front of their home fans. The Bearcats broke the century mark in Tuesday's contest, defeating the Bears 110-74, improving to 2-0 (0-0 GLVC) this year.
SBU began the game on a 9-0 run,
RJ Crawford was responsible for 6 of those. Keeping their foot on the gas, the Bearcats quickly expanded their lead to 13. Just under the 10-minute mark,
Tyler Williams went on a miniature run of his own, scoring 7 out of 9 points in a couple of minutes and extending SBU's lead to 34-17. At the 2-minute mark,
Mitch Ganote completed an and-one opportunity, boosting SBU's lead to 27. The Bears chipped away in the final minutes of the first, making the score 56-38 SBU at the break.
After Barclay scored the first basket of the second half, SBU went on a 10-0 run over the next few minutes to quickly build their lead to 26. They maintained a similar lead for a another few minutes, then
Quinn Nelson and
Drew McMillin hit a couple three's and
Jalil Beaubrun made a free throw to extend the lead to 30. With just under 4 minutes left,
Juan Morales grabbed an offensive rebound and slammed it down, 97-65.
Tyler Williams scored the final bucket of the game, making a final score of 110-74.
Mitch Ganote had another impressive outing, recording stats in a number of categories. He was 7-9 from the field for 19 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and a steal. With one rebound from a double-double,
Juan Morales scored 19 points on 7-10 shooting with 9 rebounds.
RJ Crawford contributed with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Quinn Nelson made 3 more three pointers, closing in on SBU's all-time record. He had 12 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal in the victory.
The team hits the road for their next couple of contests, participating in the Missouri Southern Classic Friday and Saturday. They'll face Missouri Southern on Friday at 7:30 PM and Pittsburg State on Saturday at 5:30 PM.
