The following “Starting Five” points offer a quick look inside GLVC men’s basketball action this week:
Deaconess Named Title Sponsor of GLVC Basketball Tournaments
STARTING FIVE
[1 | bellarmine wins top 10 battle, uw-parkside soars to top of glvc east]
In a battle of GLVC East Division heavyweights, No. 9 Bellarmine stopped No. 10 Southern Indiana's 16-game winning streak with a 78-70 win in Evansville on Monday, but it was UW-Parkside's 71-66 win at Lewis that propelled the Rangers to first place in the East at 7-0. After dropping its season opener, UW-Parkside has now won 15 straight games. Elsewhere in the East on Monday, UIndy topped Saint Joseph's 98-75 on the big stage in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the NBA's Indiana Pacers. Illinois Springfield edged McKendree in Lebanon, while William Jewell scored an 89-62 non-conference win over Avila.
Looking ahead to Thursday and Saturday, Lewis and UW-Parkside travel to Bellarmine and Southern Indiana, while co-West leaders Quincy and Truman State will hit the road to Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis.
[2 | bellarmine, southern indiana, uw-parkside ranked in nabc top 25 poll]
Three GLVC teams are represented in this week’s National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Poll,
it was announced Tuesday. Southern Indiana (16-1, 6-1 GLVC) moved from No. 10 to No. 9 following a loss by then-No. 9 Bellarmine on Friday at Truman State, but the Screaming Eagles fell out of the unbeaten ranks Monday – a game not reflected in this week’s poll – courtesy of the Knights, who beat USI 78-70 to leave five undefeated teams in NCAA Division II. Bellarmine (14-3, 6-0) dropped to No. 15 following the Truman loss, and is set to welcome newly-ranked No. 22 UW-Parkside (15-1, 7-0) on Saturday. Quincy fell from the national rankings this week, after the 24th-ranked Hawks dropped close home contests to Bellarmine and Southern Indiana last week.
[3 | usi’s taylor making his mark]
Southern Indiana senior guard Jeril Taylor,
the GLVC Player of the Week, nearly set the league’s single-game scoring mark last Thursday at Truman State, when he netted a school-record 50 points on 13-of-15 shooting, with nine rebounds and six assists. He finished two points shy of the GLVC single-game record held by three people, most recently Lewis’ Max Strus at Northwood on Nov. 24, 2015. The other two record holders are UW-Parkside’s LaVontay Fenderson against Saint Joseph’s on Feb. 12, 2009, and UIndy’s Gary Paul versus Northern Kentucky on Jan. 14, 1988. His 35 points in the first half set a new school record, and he tied the USI record with 9-of-9 shooting from three-point range. That effort was the best seen in the GLVC since Kentucky Wesleyan’s Rodney Edgerson went 10-of-10 from the beyond the arc at UW-Parkside on Jan. 25, 2007. Speaking of Taylor’s Player of the Week award, he picked up his fourth of the season on Monday, which made him the first four-time single-season honoree since USI’s Chris Thompson during the 2005-06 season (1/30/06, 1/23/06, 1/19/06, 11/21/05).
[4 | stepping up the scoring]
In addition to USI’s Jeril Taylor, who entered last week scoring 21.4 points per game and posted an average of 32.5 over two outings, a number of other league scorers surpassed their season scoring clips last week as well. Quincy’s Joseph Tagarelli (19.5ppg entering last week) averaged 25.0, while teammate Evan McGaughey (16.5) ended with 28.5; Bellarmine’s Adam Eberhard (18.6) netted 24.5, Truman’s Jake Velky (18.4) tallied 20.0, and William Jewell’s Patrick Whelan (18.1) netted 30.0. Perhaps the most impressive jump was UIndy’s Eric Davidson (14.1), who posted two straight games with 32 points each.
[5 | glvc represented among ncaa statistical leaders]
In the latest
NCAA statistical report released Monday, a number of GLVC teams and student-athletes currently rank among the nation’s best in select categories. The GLVC remains the hottest shooting league in NCAA Division II, holding down the nation’s top field goal percentage this week. The GLVC as a whole leads the other 23 Division II conferences with a nation-leading 48.30 field goal percentage (7,539-15,609), ranking ahead of the Northern Sun (47.39) and Sunshine State (47.35). GLVC teams have also combined for a 38.54 three-point field goal percentage (2,351-6,099), which ranks second behind the Northern Sun (38.55), and a 72.33 free-throw percentage (3,499-4,744) that rates fourth overall. To emphasize that nation’s-best field-goal percentage, five GLVC programs rank in the top 10 nationally in that category, including No. 2 Quincy (52.9), No. 5 Bellarmine (52.4), No. 6 UW-Parkside (51.8), No. 8 Drury (51.6), and No. 9 Southern Indiana (51.6). Beyond the arc, four teams rank in the top 20, including No. 3 Truman (44.3), No. 4 UW-Parkside (43.7), No. 5 USI (43.1), and No. 19 Drury (41.6). Among the other national notables, Southern Indiana is second overall in scoring margin (23.4), fourth in rebound margin (11.0) and sixth in scoring offense (95.2), and Bellarmine is third in free-throw percentage (80.0) and 10th in assists per game (18.6). Individually, Truman’s Jake Velky and McKendree’s Justin Blanks are ninth with a 92.2 free-throw percentage, and USI’s Julius Rajala is 10th in field goal percentage (65.4).