GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Southwestern University men's basketball team dropped to 1-2 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference on Friday evening with a 58-49 loss at home to Centenary (La,) College despite owning a 27-24 lead at the half.
Southwestern (3-8overall) and Centenary (9-2, 3-0 SCAC) could have been making saltwater toffee with all of the pushing and pulling as well as giving and taking that was the first half.
The Pirates led by as many as seven at 19-12 with 7:01 left in the first half when Luke Hatcher made both free throws after having snagged a defensive rebound prior to being fouled.
Centenary went out on a 7-0 over the next 2:01 to tie the game at 19-19, but the tie was short-lived as Shobby Akpene drained a three-pointer off an assist from Josh Jones just 0:12 later to regain the lead for the Pirates.
Another trey from Akpene with 3:17 left in the opening half gave Southwestern a 25-19 lead.
Jaco Hester would extend the Pirates' lead out to 27-19 on a pair of free throws with 1:18 left before halftime.
Quentin Beverly's jumper at the 1:11 mark ended a scoring drought for the Gents that spanned 3:49.
A made jumper by Centenary and the subsequent and-1 conversion made it 27-24 Southwestern at the half.
Neither team seemed to want full control of the game as the score remained 27-24 until Centenary's Seth Thomas converted a layup off an offensive rebound.at the 17:49 mark early in the second half.
The Gents took their first lead of the second half when Beverly drained a three with 15:15 to go.
Zac Black would answer with layup just 14 seconds later tying the game at 31-31.
The score would remain 31-31 for over three minutes as neither team could manage to put the ball through the net until Beverly gave the Gents a 33-31 lead with 12:03 left in the game.
Two possessions later, Enakpene knotted the game at 33-33 off an assist from Preston Hannah with 10:52 left in the game marking the final time the Pirates would be tied the rest of the way as Thomas would convert a free throw for Centenary a short time later giving the Gents a 34-33 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the game.
Centenary would maintain the lead throughout thanks to the defensive pressure put on Southwestern and the Pirates inability to convert baskets especially in key stretches when they needed them the most.
Leading the Pirates in scoring was Hatcher with 10 points while Enakpene was close behind with nine in 19 minutes of action.
Despite scoring just four points, Brock Luechtefeld turned in a decent game as he was a beast on the boards with seven rebounds and collected a steal and a block along the way.
Centenary's Thomas led all scorers with 19 points.
UP NEXT
The Pirates will look to even their conference record when a hot St. Thomas team comes to town to complete the weekend series. Tipoff from the Robertson Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST.
