Despite leading by 10 at the half, the Southwestern University men's basketball team dropped a 80-71 decision to Millsaps College in Georgetown, TX on Friday (Feb. 15) night in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.
The Pirates made their first five three-point attempts with five different players making them and the team built a 22-10 lead with 10:01 left in the half. The Majors were able to cut the lead to three less than five minutes later but Southwestern had an answer. The Bucs promptly went on a 15-4 run for their largest lead of the night as Goran Stojcic (Houston, TX/stratford HS) hit a pair of free throws to put them up 43-29 with 53 seconds on the clock. SU then took a 43-33 lead in to the half after shooting 61.9 percent from the field and 70 percent from three-point range.
Millsaps came out hot in the second half, cutting the SU lead quickly and taking the lead at the 14:04 mark on Lorenzo Bailey's third-straight three-pointer. The Pirates fell behind by as many as seven but fought back to take the lead on a Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) three with 5:52 to go in regulation. Andrew McDonald (Austin, TX/Westwood HS) then hit one of two free throws for a 65-63 lead with over five minutes to play. The Majors then scored 11-straight points to to put the game out of reach for SU.
Sophomore Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) led the Pirates in scoring and rebounding with 11 points and five boards. He was just 2-8 from the field and 2-6 from beyond the three-point arc but he connected on 5-6 from the free throw line. Anthony Cox (Flower Mound, TX/Flower Mound HS) added eight points for the Bucs along with three rebounds. Stojcic and senior Ben Schleif (San Antonio, TX/Reagan HS) each had seven points.
The Pirates got 39 points off the bench and as a team they out-rebounded the Majors 36-27. Southwestern was undone by 24 turnovers which turned in to 25 points off turnovers for MC. Millsaps only turned the ball over 12 times. For the game, Southwestern was 21-44 (47.7 percent) from the floor and 11-24 (45.8 percent) from three-point range.
SU is now 9-13 overall and 4-8 in the SCAC while Millsaps ups it's season mark to 20-3, 11-2.
The Pirates host Hendrix College on Saturday (Feb. 16) at home at 8:00 pm for their final home game of the season.
