The Southwestern University men's basketball team squandered a nine-point halftime lead and suffered a 68-64 loss at the hands of Hendrix College on Saturday (Feb. 17) night in Georgetown, TX.
Hendrix scored the first five points of the game but SU quickly answered as sophomore Micah Salinas (San Antonio, TX/Highlands HS) scored eight points to make the score 8-5. Salinas scored the Pirates' first 10 points, tying the game at 10-10. The Pirates used a 10-point run to push their lead to 11 with 7:19 on the clock. Southwestern then took its largest lead of the game at the 2:49 mark when a Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) layup made the score 33-19. At the half, SU held a 35-26 advantage.
It did not take long for the Warriors to work their way back in to the game, cutting the lead to one less than eight minutes in. The game went back and forth with the Pirates eventually building a six-point lead with 2:22 to play. Hendrix then scored 11-straight points to go ahead by five with just 14 seconds left. A three-point play by junior Miles Elsey (Wimberley, TX/Wimberley HS) pulled SU to two back but HC's Matt Secrease made a pair of free throws to put the game out of reach with eight seconds left.
Junior Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) led the Bucs in scoring with 11 points. He was just 3-10 from the floor but connected on 4-4 from the foul line and dished out two assists. Salinas finished with 10 points on 4-8 shooting, including 2-3 from three-point range. First-year Ross Hayes (Houston, TX/Clements HS) ended the night with a team-high eight rebounds.
Hendrix out-rebounded the Pirates 37-29 and turned the ball over two times less than the Pirates. Southwestern shot at a 45.1 percent (23-51) clip while the Warriors made 39.3 percent (22-56) of their shots. The difference in the game was free throws, with Hendrix connecting on 19-22 shots from the foul line and the Pirates making 12-15.
The Pirates close the regular season with an overall record of 11-14, 5-9 in the conference and will be the seventh seed at the conference tournament. Hendrix finishes with a 15-9 mark, 7-7 in conference.
Southwestern will square off against Centre College in the first round of the SCAC tournament on Friday (Feb. 23) at 1:00 p.m. in Memphis, TN at Memphis University School.
