Game Notes

Date: February 16, 2021
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: Bolivar, Mo.

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist will be hosting the Lewis Flyers for the start of the last home stand of the season for the Bearcats. The Bearcats will be looking to knock Lewis out of their second place divisional standing.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
In their first year as full-time members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the SBU Women's Basketball team finished 15-13 (9-11 GLVC) on the year. The GLVC allows just 8 teams to make the conference tournament. Finishing 10th out of 16 teams in the GLVC, the Bearcats narrowly missed the conference tournament for the second straight year.

The Bearcats are led by experience with seniors Kyleigh Vaught, Sydney Bandy, and Regan Tibbits as the top three scorers with all three averaging in the double digits. Tibbits also leads the team in rebounding with 5.0 rebounds per game. Southwest Baptist is currently in second place in the conference in free throw percentage with a 77.6% mark. 

Southwest Baptist is coming off a close loss to Indianapolis where they outscored the Greyhounds 23-18 in the fourth quarter but fell 66-77 in the end. Brylee Graddy came off the bench to lead the Bearcats in scoring with 13 points. The Bearcats spread the ball out in their scoring attack with Brylee Graddy, Kyleigh Vaught, and Regan Tibbits all having 3 assists. Sydney Bandy crashed the boards hard with a team leading 5 rebounds.

SCOUTING THE LEWIS FLYERS
The Lewis Flyers are a team that utilizes their youth with 3 true freshman starting and making impactful contributions. Kathryn Schmidt is a freshman that is averaging a team leading 13 points per game as well as 6.8 rebounds per game. Jenna Badali is also a freshman that is second on the team in scoring with 12.4 points per game and an immpressive 62 assists through their first 17 games. Lewis as a team is currently third in the conference in scoring offense with 71.4 points per game. Lewis compliments that high powered offense with a conference leading 3-point defense in allowing just 28.2 points per game.

THE COACHES

SBU head coach Kelsey Keizer begins her seventh season on the SBU bench after compiling a 81-90 (44-74 conf.) record while at SBU. Coach Keizer led two Bearcats to All-GLVC honors last season, and fell just short of the conference tournament as the GLVC takes only 8 teams to the postseason tournament.

Samantha Quigley Smith is currently in her 3rd season with the Lewis basketball program. Smith led the Flyers to a 27-5 record and their 7th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the 2018-19 season. Smith's first season with the team resulted in a 24-8 record and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 

ALL-TIME SERIES
Southwest Baptist trails the all-time series against Lewis 0-1 with the one game coming in the 2019-20 season when the Bearcats fell to the Flyers 50-69.