Over the past week and a half, the Barclay College Bears men’s basketball team endured the toughest stretch of their second semester schedule.  That portion of their schedule can simply be called the “Southwest Region.” Last weekend the Bears made the arduous trip down to play #4 Dallas Christian and #2 Arlington Baptist. They then turned around and traveled to Moore, Okla. to take on #1 Hillsdale Free Will Baptist on Tuesday night.

After holding second half leads against both Dallas and Arlington, the Bears were unable to contain either high octane offense to come out victorious. However, there was no time to sulk over the loses as the Bears were right back at it three days later. The Saints of Hillsdale eyed some revenge considering the Bears have been the only Division II team to hand the Saints a loss this season.

The Bears would literally take the Saints best shot on this night. Narrowly trailing the Saints 44-39, the Bears felt good about being within striking distance heading into halftime. Could they pull of the season sweep? Over the first eight minutes of the second half, the Saints were unable to distance themselves from the Bears. Their lead remained at six. It was over the final 12 minutes that the Saints went absolutely bananas from three point land. It was as if the rim was the size of the moon. Everything shot by anyone in a Saint’s uniform went in. When it was all said and done, the Saints had connected on sizzling 9 out of 10 three pointers over the final 12 minutes to hold of the Bears 107-90 and solidify their #1 ranking.

“We actually played really well on both ends of the court,” said head coach Royce Bryan. “We were just unfortunate to catch a really good team having a ridiculous night shooting the ball.”

Next up for the #9 ranked Bears is a pair of Midwest Christian College Conference games in Haviland. They will take on Calvary Bible College (Belton, Mo.) at 7:30 pm on Friday night and then host #10 Ozark Christian College (Joplin, Mo.) on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm for homecoming.