The following “Starting Five” points offer a quick look inside GLVC men’s basketball action this week:
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[1 // rockhurst rolls to get the week started]
GLVC men’s basketball tipped off Tuesday night with Rockhurst connecting on a season-high 20 three-point field goals to cruise to a 103-77 win over Haskell at RU's Mason-Halpin Field House. The Hawks made nine threes in the first half to take a 49-32 halftime lead. Rockhurst added 11 shots from beyond the 3-point line in scoring 54 points in the second half. Eddie Muench led the Hawks with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. GLVC teams are back on the hardwood with conference games on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday's action will feature UW-Parkside at Southern Indiana and Bellarmine at Indianapolis in East Division battles, while the rest of the night's play is split between Central and West Division teams. Thursday’s marquee interdivisional matchup pits West leader Truman State at Central leader Maryville, which has captured the past five games. For a complete look at this week’s action,
click here.
[2 // the week that was]
This past week in GLVC basketball
saw a number of memorable wins and milestones. William Jewell kicked off the week by knocking off Division I Missouri-Kansas City 86-74 in an exhibition game at Municipal Auditorium on Tuesday. Keith Hayes poured in a game high 31 points, including 22 in the first half, to go along with seven rebounds. History was made in Lebanon Thursday as two coaches with more than 2,000 combined wins met for the first time in men's college basketball history. Sure it wasn't the first actual meeting between William Jewell's Larry Holley and McKendree's Harry Statham, but no two coaches with more than 2,000 wins had ever met on the court. Jewell's 84-78 win marked Holley's 902nd career win, which ties him with Bob Knight for ninth all-time in coaching victories. Statham leads all coaches with 1,121. The 100th edition of the UIndy-Bellarmine saga proved to be yet again another thriller, as the Greyhounds knocked off No. 5 Bellarmine, 76-68. Devin Dixon scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down six rebounds in the win, the sixth time he had scored double figures this season. In St. Louis, Truman's Jake Velky hit a 30-footer at the buzzer to give the Bulldogs a stunning 75-74 victory over Maryville. In Quincy, 10 total players scored in double figures in the Hawks' 84-81 victory over Missouri S&T, but it was Marcus Hinton's 18 points and 10 rebounds that gave first-year head coach Ryan Hellenthal his third straight GLVC win. On Saturday, Southern Indiana junior forward DayJar Dickson scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Screaming Eagles to an 86-56 victory at McKendree. USI gave head coach Rodney Watson his 200th win, tying him for second all-time in program history. He is tied with Rick Herdes (200-59, 2001-09) and 31 wins behind all-time leader Bruce Pearl (231-46, 1992-2001). Elsewhere, Drury broke away from William Jewell in the second half of its GLVC showdown at the O'Reilly Family Event Center and claimed an important 86-67 win on Overflow the O' day in front on 3,178. Freshman center Julius Walker led the way for Drury with career highs in points and rebounds with 17 and eight.
[3 // bellarmine ranked ninth in nabc top 25 poll]
No. 9 Bellarmine remains the lone GLVC program ranked in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Poll,
it was announced Tuesday. The Knights (18-2, 9-2 GLVC), who slipped four spots in this week's poll, went 1-1 last week with a 76-68 road loss at Indianapolis and a 78-56 road victory at Missouri-St. Louis. This week Bellarmine welcomes Quincy to town on Thursday and then hosts Illinois Springfield on Saturday.
[4 // stat races tightening up]
Now that we have reached the back half of the conference schedule, there seems to be no clear-cut leader just yet in a number of major stat categories. When looking at the full body of work this season, seven-tenths of a point separates first and sixth place for GLVC scoring leaders. McKendree’s Justin Blanks paces the way at 18.8 points per game, followed by William Jewell’s Patrick Whelan (18.6) and Keith Hayes (18.5), Maryville’s Nolan Berry (18.5), USI’s Alex Stein (18.4) and Truman State’s Zach Fischer (18.1). Berry and Fisher are currently tied for the GLVC rebounding lead at 10.5 caroms per contest, while USI’s Marcellous Washington holds a slim lead in the steals category at 1.9 swipes per game, followed by Jewell’s Pharroh Gordon (1.8), Illinois Springfield’s Eddie Longmeyer (1.7) and McKendree’s Giovanni Offard (1.6). In blocks, Maryville’s Berry averages 1.5 swats each time out and tracked closely by USI’s Julius Rajala and Quincy’s Marsalis Johnson at 1.3. The only real breathing room between first and second seems to be in assists, where UMSL’s Elijah Watson leads the way with 5.2 dishes per game, followed by Rockhurst’s Curtis Lewis at 4.9. Speaking of Lewis, the talented RU rookie is leading the GLVC in conference-games only with 19.5 points and 5.8 assists per game, and owns the league’s sixth-best assist-turnover ratio at 1.9 as well.
[5 // among the nation’s best]
In the recent statistical report published by the NCAA, several GLVC teams and individuals rank among the nation’s top 10 in select categories. Bellarmine (52.3) and Drury (50.7) are second and seventh in field-goal percentage, while the Knights are third in scoring defense (61.5), sixth in scoring margin (16.2), and 10th in assists per game (18.5). Drury (44.0) and UIndy (42.7) rate second and sixth, respectively, in three-point field goal percentage, while Drury is fifth in three-point field goals per game (12.5). The Panthers are also seventh in assist/turnover ratio (1.59). Missouri S&T (281) and Maryville (283) are eighth and ninth in fewest fouls, and William Jewell is 10th in free-throw percentage (77.5). Individually, USI’s Alex Stein is second in the country in free-throw percentage (95.4), followed by UIndy’s Eric Davidson in fifth (93.0). UW-Parkside’s Adam Bonk is fifth in three-point field-goal percentage (50.0) and Truman’s Zach Fischer (66.5) is seventh in field goal percentage. Fischer also ranks fourth with 13 double-doubles, while Maryville’s Nolan Berry is ninth with 11.