Men's Basketball Jumps Out to 22 Point Lead in Second Half, Hangs On for Home GLVC Win Over Rockhurst
McKendree University men's basketball opened the home portion of its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule here Thursday evening by jumping out to a 22-point lead just six minutes into the second half, before holding off a late game rally by Rockhurst University to hang on for a 73-62 victory over the Hawks at the Harry M. Statham Sports Center.
With the victory, McKendree improves to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the GLVC, while Rockhurst falls to 3-4 overall and 1-1 in the league. In addition, the home win was McKendree's third straight home win dating to last season.
"I thought we played 30 minutes of our best basketball all year and about 10 minutes of our worst. Fortunately, we did enough to get the job done, but we must be more consistent to be successful in this league," said McKendree men's basketball head coach George Suggs following the game. "This is a great opportunity for us to learn from a win. If we can take the good parts of this one and build on it, we will be in great shape moving forward."
Thursday's game came three days after the Bearcats suffered its worst loss of the season as they fell 77-55 at William Jewell to snap a three-game winning streak, but the Bearcats appeared to have little hang over from that game as they led 39-28 at the half and led 54-32 with 14:17 left in the game, before Rockhurst rallied to pull within five points at 65-60 with 1:25 left in the game.
McKendree's offense, which shot 51 percent from the field, put four players in double figures in the win as junior forward Milos Vicentic (Belgrade, Serbia/OKK Belgrade) led the way with 18 points, while senior guard Bryson Bultman (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) added his second double-double of the season as he tallied 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and had six assists.
The other Bearcats that scored in double figures were senior guard Eric Powell II (Lexington, Ky./Asbury University) and sophomore forward Caleb Zurliene (Aviston, Ill./Purdue Northwest). Powell II tallied 15 points, including drilling a trey with 1:10 left in the game to give McKendree a 68-60 win that sealed the win for the Bearcats and Zurliene added 13 points, seven rebounds and blocked three shots.
Vicentic scored the first four points of the game as the Bearcats jumped out to a 9-2 lead just four minutes into the contest. The lead, though, was short lived as Rockhurst scored 11 of the next 14 points, including seven straight points, to take a 13-12 lead following a basket by Rich Byhre with 9:53 left in the opening half.
McKendree, though, would respond with a 23-9 run over the next six-plus minutes to take a 36-21 lead. The run was aided by seven points from Vicentic and capped by a triple from Powell II with 3:05 left in the period.
RU would use a 7-0 run to cut McKendree's lead to 36-28, but fifth-year senior forward Luke Hensler (Okawville, Ill./SWIC) hit a trey with 25 seconds left in the period to give the Bearcats a 39-28 halftime lead.
In the opening half, McKendree shot 60 percent from the field and 44 percent (7-for-16) from the 3-point line, while holding the Hawks to 36 percent field goal shooting and 12.5 percent shooting (2-for-16) from the 3-point line. Vicentic (11) and Powell II (9) combined for 20 of those 39 first half points.
The Bearcats opened the second half by making six of its first nine shots to push its 11-point halftime lead to 22 points at 54-32 just five-plus minutes into the half. The run began with a lay-up by Zurliene and was capped by a 3-pointer from Powell II.
Following that hot streak, the Bearcats offense slowed down as they closed the game by making just four of its final 15 shots (26.6 percent) and that cold streak help Rockhurst mount a rally as they used a 17-4 run over the next seven-plus minutes to cut McKendree's lead to 58-49 with 6:32 left in the game.
The Bearcats shot 42 percent from the field and 25 percent from the 3-point line in the second half.
After Bultman made two free throws to push the Bearcats' lead to 60-49 with 6:25 remaining, RU would answer back with an 11-5 run capped by a trey from Jake Auer to pull within 65-60 with 1:25 left in the contest.
That would be as close as the Hawks would get a Powell II's trey with 1:10 left helped the Bearcats score eight straight points to pull out to a 73-60 lead with 12 seconds left. Byhre would cap the scoring on a lay-up with one second left.
Byhre, who entered the game leading the GLVC in both scoring (18.3), rebounding (11.0) and field goal percentage (66.1 percent), finished with a game-high 19 points and added nine rebounds, but shot just 7-for-16 (43.4 percent) from the field.
In addition to Byhre, Auer totaled 10 points, while Jihad Thornton scored nine points in the loss.
For the game, McKendree shot 51 percent from the floor and 34 percent (11-for-34) from the 3-point line. Rockhurst finished the night shooting 34 percent from the field and 15 percent (5-for-33) from the 3-point line. That 5-for-33 effort from the 3-point line came three days after the Hawks made 13 treys and shot 50 percent from the 3-point line in its 93-69 home win over Maryville (Mo.).
The Bearcats held a 40-36 edge on the glass, but Rockhurst collected 17 offensive boards in the game that led to 12 second chance points.
Rockhurst forced the Bearcats into a season high 18 turnovers, including forcing 10 of those turnovers in the second half. The Hawks scored 19 points off those turnovers, including 11 points off those 10 second half turnovers. Rockhurst had seven turnovers in the game.
The Bearcats had 19 assists and blocked four shots, while Rockhurst had nine assists and picked up six steals.
Both teams shot over 70 percent from the free throw as McKendree was 12-for-16 (75 percent) from the line, including a 10-for-13 effort in the second half, while RU was 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) at the line.
McKendree will look for its second consecutive win as they host 17th-ranked Southwest Baptist for a 3 p.m. GLVC contest. SBU comes into the game reeling as they have dropped two straight games to move its record to 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the league following its 81-74 loss on Thursday at Maryville (Mo.). That loss came three days after a 70-65 loss at home to UMSL.
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