Colorado Springs, Colo. - The Centenary men's basketball team fell 66-55 to the Colorado College Tigers on Sunday in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest and the regular-season finale for both teams at Reid Arena.
The Gents (17-8, 10-6 SCAC) earned the No. 3 seed in next weekend's SCAC Championship in San Antonio and will face No. 6 seed Southwestern (10-15, 6-10 SCAC) on Friday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal contest. Colorado College improved to 12-13 and 9-7 in SCAC play and will be the No. 4 seed next weekend and face No. 5 seed Schreiner (12-13, 6-10 SCAC) in the other men's quarterfinal game.
See the official 2023 SCAC Basketball Championship page here: https://www.scacsports.com/tournament/winter/basketball/23championships/index
Centenary was held to just 55 points for the second game in a row after dropping a 68-55 decision to St. Thomas in Houston on Tuesday. The Gents finish with a 3-6 record during the regular season while the Tigers improved to 9-3 at home. The Gents held a slight (27-25) lead at the half, but the Tigers outscored them 41-28 after halftime to finish off the double-digit win. Colorado College earned a series split following a 63-58 Centenary win at home back on Jan. 13.
The Gents shot 34.5 % (19-55) for the game, 34.8 % (8-23) from 3-point range, and 9-13 from the free throw line for 69.2 %. The Tigers finished 22-59 from the floor for 37.3 %, 8-21 from beyond the arc for 38.1 %, and 14-17 from the FT line for 82.4 %. The Tigers finished with a decisive advantage (45-33) in rebounding and forced the Gents into 18 turnovers. Colorado College, which turned the ball over 15 times, scored 19 points off of TO's to 14 for Centenary.
The Tigers won a close battle in points in the pain (22-16) and received 22 points from their bench while the Gents' reserves scored 17. The Tigers scored 11 fast break points to six for the gents and the team combined for six second-chance points, a 4-2 advantage for the Gents. Centenary finished with eight assists, eight steals, and three blocked shots and Colorado College tallied 13 assists, 10 steals, and blocked four shots.
Senior G Tykeem Singleton (Fort Worth, Texas) led the Gents with 15 points and freshman G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas) was just behind him with 13. Senior G Jalen Behr (Athens, Ga.) finished with eight and senior G Kile Mingo (Cypress, Texas) added seven. Junior G Braeden Board (Rayne, La.) and senior F Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) each scored four.
Four Tigers reached double figures, led by 15 points from DeAnte' Dennis followed by 14 from Egar Romero. Dinari Boykin and Adrian Price each scored 12. Trey Crawford chipped in four points, Scott Ruegg had three, and Kevin Dittman, Leo Magbus, and Devin Philio each scored two. Philio also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Singleton, who reached double figures for the 13th time this season, played 30 minutes and grabbed five rebounds. He was 6-12 from the floor and 3-5 from beyond the arc with a blocked shot and a steal. Beverly played 34 minutes and was 5-11 from the floor, 2-3 at the FT line and hit one trey. He had two assists, two rebounds, a blocked shot, and a steal. Beverly has now reached double figures seven time and done so in three of the last four games. Mingo was 3-7 overall in 15 minutes off the bench and hit one trey and had one rebound and one steal.
Board played 23 minutes and grabbed a team-high six rebounds with an assist, a blocked shot, and a steal. He was 1-2 at the FT line and hit one trey. Thomas, held below double digits for the third game in a row, was 4-4 at the FT line for all of his points and added three rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Junior G Coby Harris (Lafayette, La.) and senior G Ralph Johnson (White Castle, La.) each scored two points. Harris played nine minutes and had three rebounds and Johnson started and played 27 minutes as he had four rebounds and three assists. Junior G/F Dylan Hooter (Mandeville, La.) added five rebounds and two steals in his 17 minutes off the bench.
The first half was, for the most part, a defensive slugfest as neither team reached the 20-point mark until a 3-pointer by Board gave the Gents a 20-15 lead with 5:53 left before the break. A Singleton jumper tied the game at 15-15 at the 12:34 mark and then no scoring occurred for five minutes until Singleton again found the basket for a layup at the 7:27 mark for a 17-15 lead.
A jumper by Mingo gave the Gents a 22-15 lead with 5:11 remaining and then the Tigers closed the half on a 10-5 run but the Gents held their two-point lead at the intermission. The second half featured multiple ties and lead changes until the Tigers began to take control around the midway point. But, the Gents would not go away and erased an eight-point deficit with just over nine minutes left as a trey by Behr gave the Gents a 48-47 lead at the 5:27 mark. The Tigers, however, made several clutch shots down the stretch and tightened their defense to close the game on a 19-7 run to seal the win.
The Gents will now fly home and rest up as they prepare for the SCAC Championship this weekend in San Antonio.
See the Gents' complete season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests.
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