The SU men's basketball team improved to 8-6 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference by defeating the Hendrix College Warriors 57-43 in Conway, AR on Sunday (Jan. 7).
The Pirates, after trailing by three in the early-going, took an 8-6 lead on a Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) three-pointer and never trailed the rest of the game. Southwestern led by as many as seven points during the first stanza but went in to the half leading by just one, 23-22.
SU then opened the second-half with a 12-3 run for a 10 point lead with 13:39 left to play. The Pirates extended their lead as high as 18 points thanks to a Goran Stojcic (Houston, TX/Stratford HS) three with just under five and a half minutes on the clock. The Pirates closed out the game by making 8-12 from the foul line in the final 2:20.
A pair of juniors, Matt Caplan (Houston, TX/University of Kansas) and Powell, both led the Pirates with 12 points each. Caplan connected on 4-7 from the floor, including 3-4 from the charity stripe, and also led the Bucs with six rebounds and four assists. Powell made 3-10 field goals, two of which were from three-point range, and added four rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Senior Casey Gorder (San Antonio, TX/Texas Military Institute) added nine points for SU, shooting 66.7 percent (4-6). Stojcic grabbed five rebounds in the game.
Southwestern shot 45.7 percent in the contest while holding the Warriors to just 31.3 percent from the floor. The Pirates turned the ball over just nine times, their lowest total of the season.
The win was the second in as many games for SU after beating Austin College 52-33 on Friday (Jan. 5). Hendrix had won nine in a row before Sunday's game. In addition, the Pirates have not lost to the Warriors since the 2000-20001 season.
Southwestern continues through its conference schedule on Saturday (Jan. 13) when they travel to San Antonio, TX to face off against rival Trinity University at 8:00 p.m.
