For the second-straight game, the Southwestern University men's basketball team squeezed out a one-point victory in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play by downing Colorado College 72-71 in Colorado Springs, CO on Friday (Feb. 22) night.
The first half saw six tied scores and 11 lead changes with neither team leading by more than four. The Tigers took the largest lead of the half when a pair of three-pointers made the score 16-12 with 12:08 left in the half. The Pirates' largest lead of the half was three which came as SU went on a 7-0 run, with Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) scoring five, to lead 19-16 with just under 10 minutes on the clock. At the half, CC held a 31-29 lead.
The Bucs came out hot in the second half and went on a 14-4 run in the first four minutes. This gave Southwestern its largest lead of the game at eight. It took just over nine minutes for the Tigers to turn things around and take a 65-56 lead on a pair of free throws with 6:54 to go. Later, with 4:21 on the clock, the score stood at 69-62 in favor of Colorado College. SU used eight straight points to take a one-point lead with 1:10 left. The Tigers then got a layup to regain the lead with 41 seconds left but senior Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) had an answer as he knocked down a jumper just seven seconds later for a 72-71 lead. Colorado had two chances to go ahead but neither fell as the Pirates held on for the win.
Bergstrom led the Pirates with 12 points on 4-9 shooting. The sophomore was also 3-6 from beyond the three-point arc and 1-2 at the free throw line. Powell totaled 11 points and four rebounds, connecting on 5-11 shooting.
Senior Ben Schleif (San Antonio, TX/Reagan HS) also reached double-digits for SU, totaling 10 points. Schleif also had four rebounds and three steals. Miles Elsey (Wimberley, TX/Wimberley HS) led the team with five steals and Anthony Cox (Flower Mound, TX/Flower Mound HS) dished out three assists.
As a team, Southwestern recorded a season-high 18 steals with eight different players being credited with at least one steal. The two teams were even on the boards with 37 rebounds each. The Pirates shot 39.3 percent (24-61) in the game and just 26.1 percent (6-23) from three-point range while the Tigers were 44.2 percent (23-52) from the floor.
With the win, SU improves to 11-13 overall and 6-8 in the SCAC while Colorado remains winless on the season at 0-23 and 0-14 in the conference.
The Pirates travel to Sherman, TX on Sunday (Feb. 24) to take on Austin College in the season finale with a win giving the Pirates the third seed in the conference tournament and a loss possibly leaving them out of the tournament. In the event of a loss, there will be a coin toss to determine whether SU or AC reaches the tournament.
