The Lindenwood men's basketball team (4-2, 4-3 GLVC) fell 87-73 to Southwest Baptist (4-1, 4-1 GLVC) on Saturday afternoon in Bolivar, Mo.
 
GAME OVERVIEW
The opening half stayed within a possession through the first 10 minutes, but the Bearcats built an eight-point lead at the 7:44 mark.  Lindenwood regained the lead less than two minutes later in a back-and-forth contest.  Southwest Baptist scored six points in the final two minutes to take a 40-31 lead into the half.  The Bearcats scored more than half of their points in the paint, and accumulated a 47.2 field goal percentage through 20 minutes of play.  Romelo Burrell led the Lions with 11 points in the first half, as he also grabbed five rebounds.
 
The Lions powered back to tie the game at the 16:19 mark, after TJ Crockett nailed a three pointer.  After momentum shifted to both teams, the Bearcats were able to create separation.  The Lions were down by seven points with just 6:18 remaining in the game, but Lindenwood could not find the buckets they needed near the end of the game.  Southwest Baptist defeated the Lions 87-73 in the first game of the New Year.
 
Crockett had another quality performance for the Lions, as the University City product dropped 23 points and added seven rebounds.  Burrell finished his day with 14 points and eight rebounds, as the Lions had four player with double-digit scoring.  Lindenwood could not slow down the Bearcats from shooting 48.3 percent in the game, and Southwest Baptist had the edge in rebounds with a 39-27 margin.

QUOTABLE
"Tough road loss for us, but again the GLVC is a battle every night," said head coach Kyle Gerdeman.  "Give credit to SBU, I thought they made the plays they needed down the stretch.  At the same time I thought our guys showed some fight by continuing to try and dig out of a couple scoring runs from Southwest Baptist.  Like I told our team, we showed some improvement even in a loss, but over 40 minutes we just made too many mistakes on both ends of the court to beat a good team on the road."
 
GAME LEADERS
TJ Crockett (23 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL)
Romelo Burrell (14 PTS, 8 REB, 1 BLK)
Vijay Blackmon (11 PTS, 3 AST, 3 STL)
 
UP NEXT
Lindenwood will host Illinois Springfield on Wednesday inside Hyland Arena at 7:30 p.m. in St. Charles, Mo.