SHREVEPORT, La. - The Centenary men's basketball team clinched a share of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season championship with a 68-64 win over Southwestern University. The Gents move to 15-9 and 11-3 in the conference.

The regular season title marks the first since the 1989-90 season in the former Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference, now the Atlantic Sun, and lands the Gents a bye in the first round of the SCAC Championships.

"Other than winning the top seed outright, our goal was to get a bye in the conference tournament," said head coach Adam Walsh. "Coming into this weekend, we knew we had to win both or it was out of our hands. Now that we've got both, we get a bit of rest in the conference tournament and we needed that."

Travion Kirkendoll and Brandon Campbell each tallied 17 points to lead the Maroon and White. It marks the 17th double figure game for Kirkendoll, who also grabbed a team-best seven rebounds, this season and seventh straight. The scoring effort sits at the seventh for Campbell on the campaign.

Centenary led by as many as six points late in the first half, but watched its lead evaporate in the early minutes of the second stanza grabbing a 30-29 lead with 16:30 left in the game. The Black and Gold held the advantage until the 5:53 mark when a Kendall Demouchet jumper with put the Gents back in front.

SU nipped the lead back to 55-54 with 4:29 remaining, but a Donovan Williams' 3-pointer at 4:15 placed the Maroon and White back up four points and it never looked back.

Travis Kurtz led SU with 15 points in the contest while Adrian Johnson added 11 points. Blake Scott paced the Pirates on the glass with eight rebounds to add to his eight points.

Centenary returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 19 at McMurry Universty. Tip is slated for 6 p.m.