Men's Basketball Set To Open 2021 SCAC Championship at Home Friday
The Centenary men’s basketball team begins the defense of its 2020 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship on Friday as the Gents face the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs in a quarterfinal contest set for 5 p.m. at the Gold Dome.
Shreveport – The Centenary men's basketball team begins the defense of its 2020 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship on Friday as the Gents face the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs in a quarterfinal contest set for 5 p.m. at the Gold Dome.
The Gents (7-3) earned the No. 3 seed for the tournament after finishing the regular season tied with St. Thomas for second place. The Bulldogs 4-6) are the No. 6 seed. Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2020-21/boxscores/20210305_k34h.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary
For the first time in league history, the postseason event will be played on campus sites around the league with the top four seeds hosting quarterfinal round action beginning this weekend. Normally conducted over one weekend among the top six teams at a single predetermined site, this year the top eight men's and women's teams will qualify for the postseason conference tournament which will stretch over three weekends.
The semifinals are scheduled for March 12-14 and the championship will occur the weekend of March 19-2. The top remaining seeds after this weekend's games will host semifinal and championship rounds.
Centenary and TLU will face each other for the third time this season after splitting a pair of games on the season's opening weekend Jan. 15-16 in Shreveport. Centenary recorded a 61-52 win in the season opener and the Bulldogs won 68-55 the next day. The Gents dominated the Bulldogs 77-56 on March 1, 2020 in Seguin, Texas to win the 2020 SCAC championship and clinch their first NCAA Tournament berth in school history.
The Gents split with St. Thomas at home last weekend in the final two regular season games. After losing 66-63 on Friday night, Centenary survived a video review of a last-second shot that would have tied the game and sent it into overtime but it was ruled no good as the Gents closed their regular season with a thrilling 71-69 win over the Celts (8-4). TLU split with Austin College last weekend, losing 78-71 and then winning on Saturday in a rout, 81-55.
SCAC Player of the Year candidate, sophomore forward Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) led the Gents on Saturday with a game-high 22 points in 39 minutes. The sophomore forward made 7 of his 14 attempts from the floor and was 5-7 from beyond the arc in one of his best performances of the season. He added eight rebounds, a steal, two blocks, and was 3-5 from the free-throw line. Thomas, who scored 16 points on Friday, has now scored in double figures in nine of the Gents' 10 games this season. He ranks second in the conference in scoring (15.7 PPG) and rebounding (9.1 RPG).
He has recorded a pair of 20+ point games this season and has scored at least 15 points in a game seven times, has five double-digit rebounding performances, and has five double-doubles. He was especially clutch in the second half on Saturday as he poured in 15 points on 5-8 shooting and connected on 4-5 three-point attempts.
Thomas ranks second in the conference in steals, ninth in blocked shots, and 10th in free-throw percentage He is the league leader in defensive rebounds and ranks 12th in three-point field goals made and 15th in three-point FG %. He has also played the sixth-most minutes this season in the conference.
Sophomore guard Ralph Johnson (New Iberia, La.) had a solid regular season for the Gents as a follow up to being named the 2019-20 SCAC Newcomer of the Year last season as a freshman. Johnson ranks eighth in the conference in assists, 12th in steals, 21st in the SCAC in scoring (9.8 PPG), and seventh in minutes played. Junior guard Kile Mingo (Cypress, Texas) ranks fifth in the league in three-point FG's made, 12th in three-point FG %, and his 9.7 PPG ranks 22nd. Junior forward Neil Hawkins (Titusville, Fla.) was a rebounding machine all season for the Gents as he ranks ninth overall in rebounding and sixth in offensive rebounds and 14th in defensive rebounds.
Junior guard AJ Hall (Thibodaux, La.) had an outstanding final weekend as he scored a season-high 16 points on Saturday, one shy of his career high, in 33 minutes, making 7 of his 14 shots from the field. He grabbed five rebounds and had an assist. Hall scored seven points with three rebounds on Friday and added two assists, and three steals in 27 minutes. Freshman forward Tre Washington (Gibson, La.) scored a career-high 13 points off the bench in Saturday's win in 19 valuable minutes. He made 6-9 shots overall with three rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Sophomore guard Drew Young (Lake Charles, La.) has started eight of Centenary's 10 games this season and averages 4.2 PPG and is a superb free throw shooter at 77.8 %. Junior guard Tykeem Singleton (Fort Worth, Texas) averages 6.4 PPG and 3.3 RPG and scored a season-high 10 points on Feb. 9 at home against Colorado College. Singleton scored a career-high 13 points in the 2020 SCAC Championship Game.
The Gents and Bulldogs rank first and second in the league in scoring defense as Centenary leads the way as the Maroon and White allow just 61.7 PPG and TLU allows 65.4. Both teams rank in the top four in FG % defense and 3-point FG % defense. Centenary ranks in the top 50 in the nation in five different categories: 48th in 3-point FG % defense, 37th in steals, 27th in FG % defense, 18th in turnovers forced, and 11th in scoring defense. The Gents also rank 76th in free throws made.
Centenary is an impressive 17-3 in its last 20 conference games dating back to Jan. 25, 2020 and is 9-2 in its last 11 home games. Centenary, which went 10-1 at home last season, is now 14-3 in its last 17 games at the Gold Dome. Since 2014, the Gents have appeared in four SCAC championship games, second only to Texas Lutheran in title game appearances over that span.
*The seeds for this year's men's tournament are as follows:
1) Trinity (8-1 SCAC; 8-1 overall)
2) St. Thomas (7-3 SCAC; 8-4 overall)
3) Centenary (7-3 SCAC; 7-3 overall)
4) Southwestern (4-2 SCAC; 4-2 overall)
5) Austin College (4-5 SCAC; 4-5 overall)
6) Texas Lutheran (4-6 SCAC; 4-6 overall)
7) Dallas (4-6 SCAC; 4-6 overall)
8) Schreiner (1-5 SCAC; 2-6 overall)
Men's Tournament Bracket | Official Tournament Website
A link to the Gents' complete schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2020-21/schedule.
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