Kansas City, Mo. – The SBU Men’s Basketball team took a quick trip up north Thursday evening to take on GLVC West Division opponent, Rockhurst. SBU kept Rockhurst from completing a comeback, defeating the Hawks 76-68. The win improves SBU to 6-1 (2-0 GLVC). Coming into the contest, Quinn Nelson needed just 3 three pointers to tie the SBU career three pointers made record and 4 to break it. He exceeded both of those numbers with 6 on the night to make his career number 221, breaking the previous record of 218. Those 218 made three’s were done in 119 games, whereas Nelson’s 221 three’s were made in just 88 games.
Rockhurst put the first points on the board and led for around 8 minutes of the first half. At the 11:33 mark, Mitch Ganote hit a three to put SBU ahead 12-11. Joe Miller followed with a basket and a couple of free throws to maintain the lead. Several minutes later, the Hawks brought the deficit to within one, but RJ Crawford made a three and Nico Aguirre scored 5 to boost SBU’s lead back to 9. With just over a minute left before the break, Quinn Nelson hit two of his six three’s to give the Bearcats a 40-29 lead.
Jalil Beaubrun opened the second half scoring, making a jumper to boost the lead to 13. At the 13:05 mark, Quinn Nelson hit his fourth three pointer to break the record and put the Bearcats ahead 16, their largest lead of the game. Rockhurst slowly began chipping away at that lead, eventually getting to within 3 with 1:31 left on the clock. Mitch Ganote and Nico Aguirre helped seal the win with clutch free throws and a last second basket, 76-68.
Quinn Nelson’s record-breaking performance saw him finish with 21 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Nico Aguirre dropped 11, and RJ Crawford and Jalil Beaubrun each hit double digits with 10 points. Beaubrun continued his strong defensive performance with another pair of blocks. Mitch Ganote had just 9 points on 2-4 shooting from the field, 4-4 from the free throw line, but he grabbed 8 rebounds and dished 5 assists.
The team returns to Bolivar for another GLVC contest against Missouri S&T on Saturday, December 4. Tip-off for that contest is scheduled for 3 PM.
