The Southwestern University men's basketball team took the lead early and never let up en route to a 76-34 shellacking of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg Bobcats in the final game at the SU Holiday Hoops Classic in Georgetown, TX.
Early on, SU fell behind 3-2 but then regained the lead thanks to a Ben Sanders (Austin, TX/Westwood HS) layup at 15:31. Over the next six and a half minutes, the Pirates outscored the Bobcats 18-2, pushing the score to 22-5. Southwestern's largest lead of the night came with 1:22 on the clock when Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) recorded a steal and made a layup on the fast break. SU took a 38-15 lead in to the half.
The Bucs slowly built their lead in the second half, pushing it in to the 30's at 8:24 with a Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) layup. Southwestern then capped the game with a three-pointer from first-year Travis Barber (Houston, TX/Klein HS) to go ahead 76-34 with 46 seconds to play
Four Pirates scored in the double-digits and all but two players scored at least one point in the game. Powell, a junior guard, scored a team-high 13 points for SU on 6-10 shooting, including 1-4 from behind the arc. He also recorded a team-high four assists and one steal. Barber added 10 points, as did Bergstrom and junior Ben Schleif (San Antonio, TX/Reagan HS).
As a team, SU shot 49.1 percent from the floor, connecting on 27-55 field goals. The Pirate defense forced 23 turnovers in the contest and recorded 12 steals. Southwestern also out-rebounded UPG 45-34. The Bobcats helped out by managing just nine field goals in the game while shooting a lowly 17.6 percent.
The victory improved the Pirates' record to 6-5 on the year while Pitt-Greensburg fell to 1-10 overall.
Southwestern plays again on Tuesday (Jan. 2) when they travel to Belton, TX to take on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 7:30 p.m.
