IRVING, Texas - In a contest built for the top two seeds of the tournament, the Centenary men's basketball team fell 80-75 to Texas Lutheran in the championship of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Basketball Championships.
A game that featured 14 ties, 10 lead changes and each team posting four players in double figures scoring, the top-seeded Bulldogs were able to hold off the Maroon and White to capture the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Freshman Travion Kirkendoll paced the Gents with 18 points. The SCAC Co-Newcomer of the Year has scored in double digits in 20 contests, including 10 consecutive. SCAC Player of the Year James Sapp added 15 points - to mark his 23rd outing this season in double figures.
Kirkendoll and Sapp were both named to the SCAC All-Tournament Team.
Centenary garnered 14 points from Kendall Demouchet as Isaiah Whitaker chimed in 10 points. The scoring outputs marked the fourth in double digits for Whitaker and the 16th for Demouchet.
A back and forth affair in the opening half, Caden Cheramie knocked down the backend of a pair of free throws to send the Gents up 37-36 at the break. Centenary expanded its lead to as much as 5 points with 13:27 left in the second half - matching its largest lead of the game.
Back-to-back buckets from TLU's Zach Behr knotted the contest at 50-all with just over 11 minutes to play. A 3-pointer by Jordan Kouremetis gave the Black and Gold its first lead since the 8:12 mark of the first half. The trey sparked an 11-0 run to give the Dogs their largest lead of the game, 58-50, with 9:09 left to play.
Centenary chipped away at the lead and tied the contest for the 12th time on a Sapp layup. Demouchet place the Gents back in front, 64-62, with 3:27 left, but TLU answered tying the contest. Demouchet responded with a second layup in 30 seconds to place the Gents again back in charge.
Donte McGee tied the contest for the 14th and final time, 66-all, on a layup with 2:47 left to play. Behr added a pair of free throws on the Dogs next trip and TLU never looked back the remainder of the way.
Kouremetis led all scores with 20 points. McGee added 17 as Behr chimed in 12 points. Sterling Holmes rounded out the top scorers for TLU with 12 points.
Centenary finished the contest shooting 40.7 percent from the field while the Bulldogs connected on 45.3 percent. The Black and Gold held a 44.4 to 31.3 advantage from behind the arc while both teams hovered around 70 percent from the charity stripe.
