Posted by
Steve Wilson
-
Fri, Jan 29, 2010
- [
Men's Basketball
] - Viewed 159 times
PARKVILLE, Mo. - A pair of nationally ranked teams will lock horns Saturday afternoon in the national spotlight at Breckon Sports Center, as the College Fanz NAIA Basketball Game of the Week and No. 7 McKendree visit Parkville at 4 p.m.
McKendree (16-5, 5-0 AMC) will battle No. 24 Park (14-6, 7-0) for the league's last unbeaten spot in 2009-10, and both teams come into the game riding lengthy winning streaks that feature unblemished conference records.
The Pirates have won nine-straight, including seven in the AMC, beginning Dec. 1 with a win at Breckon Sports Center against Peru State. Park then opened the New Year with a come-from-behind win at Kansas Wesleyan, and since the win over KWU, the team has trailed in just two of its seven conference games, winning five by leading wire-to-wire.
McKendree's seven-straight wins include five in conference play, and the Bearcats are outscoring opponents by a margin of 11.5 points per game, averaging 75.7 and giving up 64.2. Eric Hobbie holds the team's lone double-figure scoring average at 16.5 points per game.
Four players are near nine points per game, including Sean Rakers at 9.4, Kenny Detmer and Brad Copelin at 9.0 and John Steppe at 8.8, while Andy Wolff adds eight points per game and a team-best 89 assists form his point-guard position.
McKendree's leading rebounder is Hobbie, at 6.8 rebounds per game, and the team outrebounds its opponents, 42-33, on average.
Park is led on the glass by Herschel Rodgers, who averages 7.8 rebounds per game, and he also leads the team in scoring at 16.5 points per contest. Terrell Dyer also adds to the offense at 9.9 points per game, while Juston Hairston has upped his scoring average in conference play, averaging 10.4 league points per game to up his season scoring average to 8.5.
Park shoots 46.6-percent, as a team, including 32.1-percent from outside the 3-point arc, where Tyler Price has been the team's long-range spark, knocking down 40 threes on the year, followed by 21 from Reco Anderson and 23 by Goldeng Deng.
Park is also one of the nation's top teams when it comes to defensive pressure, forcing 421 opponent turnovers on 255 team steals, a department led by junior point guard Derrick Howard, who has 52 swipes and leads the conference at just less than three steals per game.
Howard also leads the Pirates in assists with 68, while Rodgers has the team's next-best steals total with 44, followed by 31 steals by Deng.
Park averages 76.1 points per game, as a team, while giving up 65.6, including an 87.7-to-62.7 average margin in conference play. The Pirates have not allowed an opponent to cross the 70-point barrier since Peru State on Dec. 1, and in conference play, Park has reached at least 90 points three times, including Tuesday's 105-point outing against Missouri Baptist.
The game is the College Fanz NAIA Game of the Week, and can be watched by logging on to www.collegefanz.com.
