2024-25 Centenary Men's Basketball Season Preview

Shreveport – The Centenary men's basketball team opens its 2024-25 regular season on Friday evening with a non-conference contest against the Arlington Baptist University Patriots set for 7 p.m. in the Gold Dome.

Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:

Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/boxscores/20241108_jnjj.xml

Video: https://www.ktalnews.com/gocentenary/watch-live-centenary-college-sports-2024-2025/

The Gents prepped for the season with a pair of exhibition contests, defeating Bossier Parish Community College at home on Oct. 24 by a score of 94-63 and falling 97-78 to LSUS on Oct. 30. The Patriots (0-1) lost at home in their season opener to Texas College on Tuesday 65-60. Centenary is 3-0 all-time against Arlington Baptist and defeated them at home last season, 90-86.

The Gents are coming off one of their finest seasons in program history, winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history. Centenary finished 17-12 overall and 9-7 in league play during the regular season, finishing third in the conference behind Trinity University and the University of St. Thomas to earn the No. 3 seed in the tournament – one which the Maroon and White had the pleasure of hosting at the Gold Dome.

Centenary fell 58-41 to the nationally-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in San Antonio but held the high-scoring Prairie Wolves to their lowest number of points scored all season.

The Gents are led by eighth-year head Chris Dorsey, who is 102-72 in his seven seasons at the helm. Dorsey earned his 100^th win with the Gents last season in their SCAC Tournament quarterfinal win over Schreiner University. Dorsey is an impressive 65-41 in SCAC games in his tenure and Centenary has now finished .500 or better in all seven seasons under Dorsey. Dominic Percia is back for his fifth season as assistant coach.

Centenary is scheduled to play 26 regular-season contests, as the Gents will play 15 games at home, nine on the road, and two neutral-site contests. The Gents will play 16 conference contests – nine at home and seven on the road. The Gents finished 11-3 on their home court last season counting the regular season and conference tournament and are now 22-5 in their last 27 home games and have won 46 of 53 overall. They will play their first four games of the regular season at home and 11 of their first 16.

"I'm most excited about our 15 home games this year," said Dorsey. In the past, we've been very good at home, due to our fantastic fan base. Hopefully, we can continue that this season."

"We have a very competitive non-conference schedule, starting off with some of the top NAIA's in our region. I believe those games will get us prepared for non-conference D3 teams we'll face before conference play. 

SEASON OUTLOOK:

The Gents return three starters from last season's championship club in junior G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas), senior G Craig Collier (North Little Rock, Ark.), and senior F Jakobi Greenleaf (Houston, Texas) as all three earned All-SCAC honors last season.

Beverly averaged 9.2 PPG, 2.3 rebounds per game, shot 42.1 % from the floor, 38.7 % from beyond the arc, and 71.8 % from the FT line. He reached double figures 12 times and did so in his final four games of the regular season and in eight of his last 11 games. He scored a career-high 30 points in a 97-64 win at Dallas on Jan. 20 and added 23 points against Texas Lutheran on Feb. 9.

He was one of the league's deadliest long-range shooters as he hit two or more treys in a game 10 times during the season and did so in five-straight games to end the regular season. He finished in the top 30 in the league in scoring, top 15 in both 3-point FG made and 3-point FG %. He nailed seven 3-point baskets in his 30-point performance against Dallas which are the third-most in a game this season by a SCAC player and he is just the sixth different SCAC player to score 30 or more points in a game.

Collier joined the Gents after transferring from Hendrix College, made an impact as he has played in 26 games and made 19 starts and is averaging 9.2 PPG, 2.2 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists/game and 1.0 steals/game. He scored in double figures 11 times, topped 20 points twice, and scored 13 or more eight times with a season high of 26 against Texas Lutheran at home on Jan. 5. Collier finished in the top 10 in the conference during the regular season in 3-point FG's made and in the top 15 in 3-point FG %.

Greenleaf made an immediate impact in his first season with the Gents as he has reached double figures 13 times, was top five in the league in FG %, and ranked in the top 25 in the league during the regular season in both scoring and rebounding. He posted a pair of double-digit rebounding performances and had two double-doubles. He had 13 games with at least two assists and 10 games with two+ steals. Seven of his double-digit scoring performances during the regular season came in conference play.

"We are fortunate to return three starters from last season's championship team in Quentin, Craig, and Jakobi and those three all-conference players will lead a group of very skilled group of new players. The great thing about them is that they are very coachable. All of them play extremely hard and they are meeting our expectations daily."

"The only expectations I have for this year is that we play extremely hard and play unselfish. That is our identity. Ubuntu, which means "Humanity to Others" is our motto. Playing together and as hard as we can, every night, is the goal."

The Gents bring in 12 new players which includes eight true freshmen and three transfers. One of the transfers is former Schreiner Mountaineer Jalen Ned, who is a native of New Orleans and earned Honorable-Mention All-SCAC honors last season.

The first month of the season is comprised of non-conference games against Belhaven University, Berry College, Louisiana Christian University, Millsaps College, Texas College, and an opponent to be determined as part of the Millsaps College Tournament in Jackson, Miss. on Nov. 22-23. The Gents play Belhaven on Friday, Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. and Millsaps on Nov. 24 at 4 p.m. The Gents also play LeTourneau University twice during the season and face Millsaps at home.

The Gents open SCAC play at home against the University of the Ozarks on Wednesday, Dec. 4 and their first league road contest is set for Saturday, Jan. 4 at Ozarks. Centenary will close its regular season with a conference game at the University of Dallas on Saturday, Feb. 22.

Centenary was picked to finish fourth in the SCAC this season in the preseason poll released last month, earning 91 total points and receiving one first-place vote.

The top six teams in the conference will qualify for the SCAC Men's Basketball Tournament, which will be held February 28 through March 2 and hosted by University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. The winner of that event will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

See the Gents' full roster here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/roster

See the complete Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/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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