A last second shot bounced off the rim as the Southwestern University men's basketball team lost a nail-biter to SCAC rival Trinity University at home on Friday (Feb. 8) in Georgetown, TX by a score of 53-52.
The Tigers scored the first 14 points of the game but the Pirates answered with their own 19-4 run for a 19-18 lead with just over seven minutes left in the opening half. SU then fell behind by six again and managed to cut the lead to three on a three-point play by sophomore Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) for a 25-22 score at the half.
In the second period, the Pirates trailed by one with 13:44 on the clock but then allowed the Tigers to go on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to run the score to 45-34 in TU's favor. The Pirates battled back to take a 52-51 lead on a Ross Hayes (Houston, TX/Clements HS) layup with just 1:25 left to play. Trinity's Barrett Koch hit a pair of free throws with 1:11 left to put the Tigers ahead by one. The Pirates missed three shots in the final minute, including a possible winner at the buzzer that bounced off the rim.
Bergstrom led all players with 16 points, connecting on 5-9 from the floor, 3-7 from beyond the three-point arc and 3-3 from the free throw line. First-year Jonathan Brown (Houston, TX/Jersey Village HS) finished the night with seen points and seven boards.
As a team, the Bucs out-rebounded Trinity 36-31 and forced the Tigers in to 15 turnovers. The Pirates connected on 19-50 (38 percent) for the game but just 5-19 (26.3 percent) from three-point range and turned the ball over 17 times.
The loss drops the Pirates in to a three-way tie for third place in the SCAC Western Division with a 4-7 conference record. SU is 8-12 overall. Trinity is now 14-6 on the year and 7-4 in the SCAC.
SU hosts the University of Dallas on Sunday (Feb. 10) for the last non-conference games of the year at 5:00 pm.
