March 21, 2009

Kansas City, Mo. - McKendree University (Ill.) rallied from a 12-point, first-half deficit to register an 87-75 victory over Texas Wesleyan University in the final second-round contest of the 2009 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium.

For the second straight evening, the Bearcats won the game from the free throw line, hitting 40-of-49 attempts and outscoring their opponents by 13 from the charity stripe. McKendree, the No. 7 seed in this year's event, won for the 23^rd time in its last 24 games to improve to 30-5 on the year. The Bearcats will meet unseeded MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.) Saturday at 8 p.m. CDT in the national tournament quarterfinals.

Eric Palm collected a team-high 27 points and four assists, while Sean Rakers came off the bench to post 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Bearcats. Eric Hobbie also notched a double-double for McKendree with 15 points and 10 rebounds as Karrington Pettiford chipped in with 10 points.

Texas Wesleyan, the No. 10 seed in the 32-team field, raced out to a 14-4 lead in the first four minutes of play, and eventually built its margin to 25-13 following a basket and free throw by Chris Berry midway through the half. McKendree started to chip away at the deficit and outscored the Rams 11-1 over the next three minutes to pull within 26-24.

With the score tied at 38-38 late in the first period, Hobbie followed a McKendree missed shot with a slam dunk, and drilled a three-pointer on the next possession to give the Bearcats a 43-38 lead. But a steal and dunk by Terrell Henry closed the gap to 43-40 at the intermission.

There were four ties and six lead changes in the second half as the game remained close. Texas Wesleyan held a 61-57 advantage before McKendree netted eight consecutive points to claim the lead for good, 65-61, with 6:31 remaining. The Rams rallied within one point on two different occasions after that, but the Bearcats sealed the win with another 8-0 run to take its largest lead of the night 85-72 with 1:11 to play.

Chris Berry poured in a game-high 36 points and was 17-of-20 at the free throw line to pace Texas Wesleyan. Kennith Gober posted 13 points, while Ryan Barnes and Terrell Henry each chipped in with 10 points. Barnes pulled down a team-best eight rebounds for the Rams. Texas Wesleyan ends its season with an overall record of 29-5.

GAME NOTES -

Texas Wesleyan's Chris Berry led all scorers at the half with 21 points...this is the first quarterfinal round appearance for McKendree since 2003 and their third trip overall...Chris Berry of Texas Wesleyan led all scorers with 36 points, his fourth 30-point performance this season...this is the second consecutive season that Texas Wesleyan has been defeated in the tournament by McKendree ... this is the sixth 30-win season in school history for McKendree ... Bearcats' head coach Harry Statham, the all-time wins leader in men's college basketball history, picked up career win No. 995 on Friday.