The Lowdown: No. 11 Southwestern College at Friends University

Location: Garvey Center

When: Saturday, Dec. 9 @ 3 pm

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Flying with the Falcons: The Friends University Falcons notched their first road victory of the season with a dominating second-half performance in a 71-57 victory at the University of Saint Mary Spires Wednesday evening (Dec. 6) in Leavenworth, Kan.

Trailing by six with 18:26 remaining, the Falcons made their move as a layup by Tim Barbieri and three-pointer from Steele Chapman served to ignite an 11-1 push that gave Friends its first lead since it was 20-19 at the 7:06 mark of the opening half.

After consecutive layups by Bryce Johnson temporarily tied the score, Collin Maclin put in a layup of his own to put the Falcons back on top for what turned out to be for good with 13:06 left.

Now leading 48-45, the Falcons put together the game-deciding push of the night when KJ Spiller converted a three-point play and then connected from beyond the arc to jumpstart a 19-5 burst over the next 8:40 that created a 67-50 cushion with just 2:07 remaining in the game.

The Falcons easily put the game away from there, with Chapman and Deron McDaniel each hitting two free throws over the final 1:19 to put a stamp on the win for Friends.

Spiller leads the Falcons in scoring with 14.2 points per game this season, followed by Kee'on Hutton with 10.9 ppg. Barbieri has secured a team-leading 6.8 rebounds and Chapman has dished out a team-high 2.8 assists on the year.  

As a team, the Falcons are shooting 47.9 percent overall from the floor and a solid 36.5 percent from the perimeter.

Scouting the Builders: The red-hot Southwestern College Moundbuilders are undefeated at 10-0 overall and 4-0 in the KCAC, highlighted by a 79-67 win at No. 4-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan University last Saturday (Dec. 2).

The Builders are well-balanced among the leaders across the board within the conference, led Cevin Clark's 26.5 ppg that is tops in the KCAC and second in the NAIA. Andrew O'Brien is first in the league in assists (7.2 apg) and fifth in rebounding (8.3 rpg), with Mason Thiessen leading the conference in field-goal percentage (75.0) and Justin DeMaria coming in as the league's fourth-best three-point shooter (47.2).  DeMaria also scores in double-figures with 13.9 ppg.

The Series: The matchups between the Falcons and Builders are even at 22-22 since 2005, but Southwestern has got the better of things recently, winning eight of the last 10 meetings. Friends last beat Southwestern 72-66 in Wichita on Feb. 2, 2022 and are 14-9 overall against the Builders at home in that span.         

Quoting head coach Phil McClintock:     

?"Saturday will be a good test for our guys. Southwestern is nationally ranked, undefeated and currently in 1st place in the KCAC. We will have to give it all we have and play well to stay in the game. Hopefully we can use some momentum from the Saint Mary's win to be firing on all cylinders."

Straight Shooters: The Falcons are a perfect 4-0 this season when outshooting the opposition, but have lost all five times the opposing team leads in field-goal percentage.

Sponsor Alerts: Friends University Athletics is excited to have Home2 Suites by Hilton back as an official athletic sponsor this season! For more on what they can offer, click HERE to visit their official webpage.

Falcons by the Numbers:

Overall record: 4-5

KCAC: 2-3

Home: 3-1

Road: 1-4

Neutral: 0-0

When scoring:                                             

Under 50 points: 0-0

50-59 points: 0-0

60-69 points: 0-1

70-79 points: 2-3

80-89 points: 0-0

90+ points: 2-1

When allowing:

Under 50 points:

50-59 points: 2-0

60-69 points: 1-0

70-79 points: 0-0

80-89 points: 0-3

90+ points: 1-2

When leading at halftime: 2-1

When trailing at halftime: 2-4

When tied at halftime: 0-0

When committing fewer turnovers: 3-3

When committing more turnovers: 1-2

When turnovers are tied: 0-0

When leading in field-goal percentage: 4-0

When trailing in field-goal percentage: 0-5

When field-goal percentage is tied: 0-0

When leading in three-point percentage: 2-2

When trailing in three-point percentage: 2-3

When three-point percentage is tied: 0-0

When leading in rebounding: 3-0

When trailing in rebounding: 1-4

When rebounding is tied: 0-1

When leading in assists: 3-1

When trailing in assists: 1-4

When assists are tied: 0-0

In OT: 0-0

The Coaches:

Phil McClintock is in his first season as head coach of the Friends University men's basketball program.

McClintock brings a stark familiarity of the KCAC to Friends, highlighted by an eight-year tenure as Associate Men's Basketball Head Coach at Ottawa University.

At Ottawa, McClintock served as the recruiting coordinator and was responsible for film breakdown and scouting reports.

2019-20 was a breakout season, as McClintock brought in six of the team's top 10 players that produced a school-record 28 victories, a regular season KCAC championship and an NAIA Sweet 16 appearance (tournament ended early due to COVID-19).

In addition to his basketball coaching experience at Ottawa, McClintock has also been the Braves Men's and Women's Golf head coach for the past four seasons.

McClintock's first basketball head coaching position came at Salem high school, where he spent three seasons and guided the team in the 2014-15 campaign to their first winning record in eight years.

A strong developer of young players, McClintock has served as a Camp Coach at the KU Bill Self Basketball Camps every year since 2012. His responsibilities at the camp include running drills, coaching teams and developing player skills.

His first career coaching job was a two-year tenure as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at William Woods University from 2010-12.

McClintock also played collegiately at Ottawa and enjoyed immense success, earning two NAIA All-America honors, a pair of All-KCAC nods while finishing his career as the all-time leader in blocked shots and top five all-time in scoring, rebounding and steals. An Ottawa University Hall of Fame inductee in 2021, he helped the Braves to two conference titles and a pair of NAIA Sweet 16 berths.

A 2009 graduate of Ottawa University in Physical Education and Health, McClintock then earned his Master of Education in Athletics/Activities Administration from William Woods University in 2012.

McClintock and his wife Kirsten have three boys, Lawson (14), Jackson (10), and Bodie (two).

Matt O'Brien is in his 15th season as head coach of the Southwestern College Moundbuilders and is now the winningest coach in school history with more than 300 career victories.  O'Brien has guided Southwestern to 13 straight winning seasons, including a conference regular season championship that earned him KCAC Coach of the Year honors in 2018. In that 2017-18 season, O'Brien led the Builders to a KCAC tournament championship, their second consecutive NAIA second round appearance and a 27-8 overall record that netted them a No. 6 ranking in the final NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll.

Last season, O'Brien led Southwestern to a KCAC tourney title and an appearance in the NAIA National Tournament.

Before arriving at Southwestern, O'Brien was the head coach at Central Christian College and an assistant coach at Friends University for seven seasons.  Three of O'Brien's seasons at Friends came under former Falcon head coach Dale Faber.    

Up Next: The Falcons will conclude action before the Christmas break with a home matchup vs. Bacone College Tuesday night (Dec. 12) at 7 pm inside the Garvey Center.