The Southwestern University men's basketball team suffered its second loss of the season to the Millsaps College Majors, 71-65, on Friday (Feb. 2) night in Jackson, MS.
The Pirates took their only lead of the game when junior Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) made a three-pointer to make the score 3-2 just 32 seconds in to the contest. The Majors answered with a 10-0 run to make the score 12-3. Millsaps quickly extended the lead to double-digits for much of the half and led by as many as 13, the largest lead of the game, with 1:54 to go in the half. SU then closed out the half with six straight points.
The Majors built their lead back to two digits in the early part of the half until SU started chipping away. The Bucs used an 8-0 run to cut the lead to four with 7:42 left to play. They kept inching closer, pulling the score to 53-52 on a layup and subsequent free throw by first-year Anthony Cox (Flower Mound, TX/Flower Mound HS). MC follwed that with a three and led by at least four the rest of the game.
Powell, a guard, finished the night with a team-high 12 points on 4-9 shooting, including 4-8 from three-point range. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists. Cox ended the night with 10 points, three rebounds and a pair of assists. He was 3-5 from the floor, 1-1 from beyond the arc and 3-3 from the charity stripe.
Junior Ben Schleif (San Antonio, TX/Reagan HS) scored in double-digits for the third game in a row, recording 11 points on 3-7 shooting. Senior Casey Gorder (San Antonio, TX/Texas Military Institute) and junior Matt Caplan (Houston, TX/University of Kansas) both added nine points for the Pirates. Caplan led the team with eight rebounds while junior Goran Stojcic (Houston, TX/Stratford HS) pulled down seven boards.
Southwestern is now 4-6 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play, 9-11 for the season. Millsaps, meanwhile, upped its record to 13-7 overall and 8-2 in the conference.
The Pirates take on Rhodes College at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 3) in Memphis, TN for their final road game of the year.
