This past weekend, the Barclay College Men’s Basketball team traveled to Lincoln, NE to take part in Nebraska Wesleyan University’s annual Thanksgiving classic. Both schools the Bears competed against were NCAA Division III schools.

Friday night the Bears took on Luther College (Decorah, IA). Luther used their depth and experience to bottle up the Bears. By the midway point the Bears had connected on only 25% of their shots and then followed that up with 29% shooting in the second half. In addition, Luther out-rebounded the Bears 51-26 to cruise to an easy victory.The Bears were led by Freshmen Cole Hibler and Tanner Huck with 14 and 12 respectively.

The second night, the Bears took on host school Nebraska Wesleyan, who also returned all five of their starters from a year ago. This time, however, the Bears came out ready to play. On 4 of 10 shooting from behind the arc, the Bears found themselves down by only seven at halftime. A slow start to the second half allowed Wesleyan to build a double digit that the Bears could never recover from. The Bears once again lost the rebounding battle 20-40 in route to a 61-92 loss.

On a positive note, Junior Tommy Leach was named to the All-Classic team following his 16 point performance on 5-11 shooting.  Freshmen Caleb Davis, Hibler, and Huck were also in double figures scoring.

The Bears are back in action at Manhattan Christian College (Manhattan, KS) on Tuesday. Game time for this MCCC event is set for 7:00 PM CST. The women’s game will proceed the men’s game at 5:00 PM.