Saturday afternoon, November 16th, the Barclay College Bears Men’s Basketball team welcomed Faith Baptist Bible College (Ankeny, IA) to town for their 2013-14 home opener and their first Midwest Christian College Conference game as well. After playing two exhibitions and then opening the season against NAIA Division II Central Christian College (McPherson, KS) last Tuesday, the Bears were curious to know what kind of progress they had made since the start of the season.

Although the Bears were able to strike first with a three pointer by Senior Austin Ogle, they quickly found themselves in a 3-12 hole. As the half progressed however, the youthful bunch found their rhythm and not only got back in the game, but took a 38-30 lead into halftime. After being held scoreless from the perimeter in the first half, the Eagles connected on 4 three pointers on 8 shots in the second half to help them get right back into the game. The whole second half was back and forth action as the game came down to the wire. In the end, the Bears demise was their defensive rebounding as they game up 26 offensive rebounds to the Eagles. Down the stretch, they were unable to come up with defensive stops as the Eagles stole the win 74-72.

Statistically, the Bears were led by Freshman Cole Hibler’s 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting. Senior Austin Ogle, Junior Tommy Leach, and Freshman Caleb Davis also reached double figure scoring with Ogle also recording 9 rebounds. Even though the Bears were able to hold the Eagles to 40 percent shooting on the game, the Bears only shot 35 percent but were able to stay in the game by forcing 31 Eagle turnovers.

The Bears (0-2, 0-1) head south on Friday to take on NCCAA Southwest Region opponents Dallas Christian College and Arlington Baptist College, both currently ranked in the top ten.