Pineville, La. – The Centenary men's basketball team will open its 2019-20 regular season as the Gents face the Louisiana College Wildcats in a non-conference road game set for 6:30 p.m. at H.O. West Fieldhouse.
Live stats for Tuesday's game are available at the following link: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/lcwildcats/. The Gents and Wildcats met last season in Shreveport with Louisiana College picking up a 61-58 victory. The Wildcats, 19-7 and 11-5 in the American Southwest Conference last season, fell 64-41 to ULM on Tuesday in an exhibition game.
The Gents have prepared for the season with a pair of road exhibition games over the last two weeks, against LSU-S and Northwestern State. Centenary fell 84-57 last Tuesday to the Demons in Natchitoches at Prather Coliseum and lost 74-64 to LSU-S on Oct. 30. The Maroon and White's home opener will be on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. against Millsaps in the Gold Dome.
Centenary was picked to finish second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for the 2019-20 season. The Gents, led by third-year head coach Chris Dorsey, received 62 points and are predicted to finish only behind Southwestern University, who received 76 points and six first-place votes. The University of Dallas is predicted to finish third, with 57 points and one first-place vote, St. Thomas fourth, and Schreiner University rounds out the top five.
The Gents, who finished 13-13 overall and 10-6 in SCAC play last season, return a strong core of players highlighted by senior Cedric Harris, a hometown product from C.E. Byrd who was a second team all-conference selection last season, and sophomore Tyrese Prince (Thorndale, Texas), last season's SCAC Newcomer of the Year, along with sophomore Kyle Mingo (Cypress, Texas), who averaged eight points per game last season and shot 36 % from three-point range and 85 % from the free throw line. Harris had 20 points against the Demons last week while Prince added 10 points and five rebounds.
Dorsey is 28-24 and 18-12 in SCAC play in his first two seasons. The Gents went 15-11 in his first season in 2017-18 and finished second in the SCAC, advancing to the conference tournament championship game and lost by just four points to Schreiner. The Gents won eight of their final 11 regular season games last year to qualify for the conference tournament for the third-straight time under Dorsey.
Centenary will play 11 home games with nine of those being Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contests. The Gents will hit the road 14 times for nine SCAC games and five non-conference games. The Maroon and White finish off the month of November with road games at Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons on consecutive days (Nov. 29-30) and then stay on the road to open the month of December as the Gents face LeTourneau on Dec. 3 and East Texas Baptist University on Dec. 9.
The Gents open SCAC play on the road at Austin College on Friday, Dec. 20 and welcome Colorado College to town on Sunday, Dec. 29 for their first conference home game. Centenary finishes the regular season with three straight home games against St. Thomas (Feb. 14), Austin College (Feb. 21), and the University of Dallas (Feb. 22). The SCAC tournament is set for Feb. 28-March 1 in Kerrville, Texas hosted by Schreiner University.
A link to the complete schedule is available here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2019-20/schedule.
Live stats and live video are available for all home games and admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic events. #GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
