The Southwestern University men's basketball team picked up a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Sewanee Tigers by a score of 62-60 on Sunday (Jan. 28) in Georgetown, TX.
The Pirates improved their conference standing with the win as their record now stands at 4-5 against SCAC competition. SU is in a tie for sixth with Trinity University, a half a game out of fourth, with five conference games left on the schedule. The Pirates are now 9-10 overall.
SU scored the first 13 points of the game, keeping Sewanee off the scoreboard until the 14:14 mark in the first half. The Pirates maintained their lead throughout the half and led by as many as 15 after junior Ben Schleif (San Antonio, TX/Reagan HS) hit his fourth three-pointer of the half. The Tigers then scored the final five points of the half to bring the score to 32-22.
Southwestern's lead slowly slipped away as the second half progressed until Sewanee went ahead 49-48 with 5:01 left to play. After a pair of ties, the Tigers held their final lead of the game with 1:47 left on a Spencer Rowland free throw. SU then went up by five after Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) hit a three-pointer and Schleif completed a three-point play with a layup and a free throw after being fouled. Sewanee came within two with less than 10 seconds left but Powell drained a pair of foul shots with eight seconds left to ice the game.
Schleif led the Bucs with 17 points on 6-12 shooting, including 4-9 from three-point range and 1-1 at the foul line. He also recorded a game-high three steals. Powell was the only other SU player to score in double-digits as he scored 11 and had four assists.
First-year Anthony Cox (Flower Mound, TX/Flower Mound HS) helped quarterback the Pirates offense by dishing out four assists, scoring seven points and also grabbing five rebounds. Andrew McDonald (Austin, TX/Westwood HS) and Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) scored eight points a piece while first-year Travis Barber (Houston, TX/Klein HS) led the team with six rebounds.
The Pirates were out-shot 40.7 percent to 36.7 percent but made up for it by shooting 35.7 percent (10-28) from three-point range while Sewanee hit just four threes in the game. The Tigers held a slight 41-39 advantage on rebounds and Southwestern forced 16 turnovers in the contest.
Southwestern takes its last road trip of the season next weekend as they play Millsaps College in Jackson, MS on Friday (Feb. 2) at 8:00 p.m. and Rhodes College in Memphis, TN on Saturday (Feb. 3) at 8:00 p.m.
