The SU men's basketball team assured itself of a spot at the conference tournament with a win on Friday (Feb. 16), defeating Austin College 68-64 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference competition in Georgetown, TX.
The Pirates went ahead early on and were up 20-12 before the Kangaroos scored six-straight to pull within two. Austin managed to take the lead briefly with 3:15 left in the half on a Chris Sturtevant three-pointer. Southwestern answered and took a 32-28 lead at halftime.
SU came out and scored the first five points of the second half, upping its lead to nine. The Pirates increased their lead to double-digits and held their largest lead of 15 on three different occasions, the last of which came on a pair of Casey Gorder (San Antonio, TX/Texas Military Academy) free throws with 3:55 to play. Southwestern led by 13 with just 33 seconds left but saw that lead evaporate as the Kangaroos pulled to within four, 68-64, with three seconds to play.
Junior Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) led all players with 15 points, connecting on 6-8 from the floor, 1-3 from beyond the three-point arc and 2-2 from the foul line. Sophomore Andrew McDonald (Austin, TX/Westwood HS) tied a career-high with 13 points in the game as he connected on 6-9 from the field.
First-year Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) scored in double-digits for the third time this season, finishing with 10 points and hitting on 2-2 from three-point range. Sophomore Micah Salinas (San Antonio, TX/Highlands HS) led the team with six rebounds while also pitching in eight points.
The Pirates shot above 50 percent for the first time since December 1, connecting on 22-41 shots for a 53.7 percent mark. SU held Austin to 37 percent (20-54) shooting. The two teams were dead even on rebounds as they both pulled down 34 and the Roos held a slight advantage in turnovers as the Bucs committed 25 while forcing 24.
The Pirates are now 11-13 overall and 5-8 in the SCAC while Austin drops to 0-13 in the conference and 5-18 for the year.
SU closes out its regular season at 8:00 p.m. in Georgetown with a game against the Hendrix College Warriors.
