Lindenwood Sweeps Again

Basketball Resurgence in St. Charles

(St. Louis, MO) – Suddenly heading to Hyland Arena (#TheBob) is a extremely challenging. Ohio Valley Conference teams are 2-12 when visiting St. Charles, Missouri. Southern Illinois Edwardsville traveled there Thursday and Lindenwood sweeps again.

Amy Eagan’s women’s team (13-7, 9-2) won convincingly (86-70) and are undefeated (7-0) in OVC home games. Coupled with Eastern Illinois’ (13-7, 10-1) loss, that sets up a first place clash on Saturday afternoon.

Kyle Gerdeman’s men’s team (10-12, 5-6) earned a hard-fought, come-from-behind victory and now own a 5-2 OVC record at #TheBob. The Lions trailed by as many as 17 points, but snagged a 65-63 victory

Eagan’s squad has more victories and more OVC wins than during the program’s’ first two, Division 1 seasons combined. Gerdeman’s team needs one more win to tie for its best ever D1 win total. Each team has nine conference games remaining.

Lindenwood Sweeps – Women Undefeated at Home

The Lions shot 64% from deep and Mya Skoff led the way with 20 points. LU dominated the glass with a 33 to 25 rebounding margin. Two other Lions reached double figures and Eagan’s team continues to show great scoring balance.

Ellie Brueggemann (11.9 ppg), Gracey Wernli (11.0) and Brooke Coffey (10.2), Skoff (8.7), Justis Odom (8.6) and Mykayla Cunningham (7.7) are six Lions that do offensive damage. It was Wernli and Odom that reached double digits with Skoff on Thursday.

Lindenwood’s success is found in winning, rather than particular kind of statistical dominance. During league play the Lions are the top three-point percentage team, but they are only fourth in completed triples. They have the second most prolific OVC offense, but no individual player shines so bright to get truly noticed.

Eagan’s team demonstrates ‘team’ mentalities.

Second Half Comeback

Resilient is the word that comes to mind. The men’s team fights for what it gets. Injuries have hampered Gerdeman’s team and they routinely find themselves trailing in games. Thursday, they trailed by 17 during the game with SIUE.

The last time these two teams met, Lindenwood was missing Reggie Bass and early in the second half, Jordan Wildy suffered a concussion. SIUE won convincingly (58-47). With Bass and Wildy healthy, but Lions were deeper and more athletic than during the first encounter.

Bass led the way with 20 points and four three-pointers. The rest of the Lions were two for 18 from deep. Leading scorer Anias Futrell (13.1 ppg) missed all seven of his three-point attempts but grabbed nine rebounds and came up with three steals, and still scored ten points.

After a difficult first half, Gerdeman says he is proud of his team’s resilience.

Lindenwood scored 26 first half points and made under 29% from the field, but exploded with 39 second stanza points and converted 50% after intermission. Lion defenders were suffocating during the game’s second half. They forced SIUE’s Ray’Sean Taylor into a 1-6 performance from deep and the Cougars made just 28 percent during that pivotal second half.

Lindenwood’s 7-foot freshman, Aly Tounkara continues to improve. He grabbed a career high ten rebounds, recorded two blocks and supplied a key, late-game tip in. Gerdeman says Tounkara improves daily and that he’s impressed with the way Futrell guarded and rebounded, during a poor shooting night.

If Lindenwood Sweeps Again

Eastern Illinois visits #TheBob on Saturday. LU is tied with Tennessee Tech at 9-2, one game behind the Panthers. This now becomes the biggest game of the season and the most important game on the OVC Saturday schedule.

Eight of eleven OVC teams qualify for the league’s season-ending tournament. The Lindenwood men are tied for seventh and eighth place. Tenth place EIU is the Saturday opponent. A win Saturday would keep the Lions in one of the top eight spots, but also put more distance between themselves and the Panthers (3-8).

There are nine OVC games left for most conference teams. If Lindenwood sweeps continue, this will be an historic Lions’ season.

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