Bolivar, Mo. – The SBU men's basketball team extracted revenge on the Lincoln Blue Tigers with a 70-62 overtime victory Thursday evening. With their sixth straight home victory to start the season they move to 9-5 (3-3 GLVC) overall.
 
The game started out with a quick 11-2 run by the visiting Blue Tigers forcing a Bearcat timeout. SBU then followed with a 9-0 run of their own evening the game up at 11 causing Lincoln to call a timeout. The visitors would hold slight lead, as much as five, throughout the 1^st half until a late three-pointer by Barron Silsby sent teams into half knotted up at 30.
 
In half two, it was the Bearcats turn to hold onto a slight lead as they pushed it to as much as six by the 10-minute mark. Leading by 7, 49-42 with 8:48 to go, the team strung together big stops along with tough baskets to take a 13-point lead with just over four minutes remaining. With it looking toward a Bearcat victory, the reigning GLVC champions fought back with a vengeance going on an 11-0 run in less than two minutes. They would complete the comeback tying the game at 58 forcing an extra five minutes.
 
Teams would struggle to find the bottom of the net early into OT before Silsby knocked down a pull up jumper for a two-point lead. Lincoln responded with a 4-0 run until Silsby sank a deep three putting SBU up one with 1:53 to go. Freshman Leo Gayman stepped up with three straight big plays to pull the Bearcats ahead. It started with a steal on the defensive end that led to a foul where he would knock down both free throws putting the team up three. On the very next defensive drive, his hustle caused his fingertips to block a three-point attempt putting the ball back in the hands of SBU. Three free throws by Jevin Sullivan put the game out of reach for the Bearcats third GLVC victory.
 
Silsby led all Bearcats with 19 points off an efficient 66% shooting and 75% from beyond the arc. Another strong performance came from sophomore Brandon Moore recording his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Gayman notched his second double-double in his young career with 16 points and a team high 13 rebounds.
 
On Saturday, the Bearcats will look to continue this momentum as they host the Missouri St. Louis Tritons. This game is slated to take place at 3:00 p.m. in the Meyer Center.