The Pirates' late three-pointers did not fall for the SU men's basketball team as the team missed a chance to tie the game in the final seconds in Sherman, TX on Sunday (Feb. 24) afternoon.
AC jumped to a 10-5 lead in the early-going and the Pirates tied the score at 12-12 with 12:45 on the clock. The Roos then scored the next seven for a 19-12 score. Southwestern was able to climb back and turn it around for a seven-point SU lead with 2:44 left in the half. At the intermission, the Bucs led 36-32.
In the second half, Southwestern went up by a game-high eight just two minutes in on a layup from Matt Caplan (Houston, TX/University of Kansas). As the game wore on, the Kangaroos came back and built a lead to 57-50. The Pirates tied the game at 59-59 but then trailed by six with 48 seconds to go. The lead was cut to five with 36 seconds left and then Caplan completed a three-point play with a layup and free throw for a two-point game. Then, with a 67-64 AC lead, the Pirates missed a pair of threes that could have tied the game and AC got a pair of free throws with one second left to put it away.
Senior Mike Powell (Houston, TX/Episcopal HS) led the team with 16 points along with three assists. Caplan was 5-9 from the floor for 12 points and sophomore Zach Bergstrom (La Vernia, TX/La Vernia HS) was 3-5 from three-point range for 11 points.
The Pirates came out in the first half and shot 57.9 percent (11-19) but fo the game they were 41.3 percent (19-46). The Roos connected on 20-50 (40 percent) from the floor and out-rebounded Southwestern 32-27.
After the game, there was a coin flip to determine whether SU or AC would take the final spot in the SCAC tournament. Austin College won so the Pirates season came to an end with an overall record of 11-14 and a SCAC mark of 6-9.
