Gents Lose Non-Conference Contest At LeTourneau

Longview, Texas - The Centenary men's basketball team lost to the LeTourneau University YellowJackets by a score of 75-59 in a non-conference contest on Friday night inside Solheim Arena.

The Gents (1-7) lost their fifth game in a row and fell to 0-2 on the road this season while the YellowJackets improved to 7-2 and 3-1 at home.

Centenary shot 35.6 % (21-59) from the floor for the game, 13-20 from the free-throw line (65/0 %), and struggled from beyond the arc as the Gents finished just 4-21 for 19.0 %. LeTourneau finished 27-58 from the floor for 46.6 %, a strong 14-18 (77.8 %) from the FT line, and went 7-24 for 29.2 %.

The YellowJackets outrebounded the Gents 39-30 as they grabbed 27 on the defensive end and 12 on the offensive glass while Centenary had 19 defensive rebounds and 11 offensive boards. Each team received 23 bench points, the Gents finished with a 15-11 edge in second-chance points, and LeTourneau had 12 fast break points to Centenary's eight.  

The YellowJackets won the battle in the paint, 36-28, LeTourneau scored 19 points off of Centenary's 16 turnovers and the Gents turned the YellowJackets' 19 TO's into 15 points. The Gents tallied 11 steals, six assists, and three blocked shots while the YellowJackets had 15 assists, nine steals, and one blocked shot.

Senior F Jakobi Greenleaf (Houston, Texas) scored a season-high 20 points to lead the Gents and was joined in double figures by a season-best 12 points from freshman G Sirwilliam McDuffie (Houston, Texas). Junior G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas) scored eight, freshman G Trenton Thomas (Cedar Hill, Texas) had five, and three players - senior G Jalen Ned (New Orleans, La.), freshman G Nicholas Addison (Cedar Hill, Texas), and senior G Craig Collier (North Little Rock, Ark.) each scored four.

Freshman G Noah Brookter (Youngsville, La.) scored two and freshman G Allen Paul (Katy, Texas) and sophomore F Khristian Wilkerson (Killeen, Texas) each played but were held scoreless.

Deonte Jackson led LeTourneau and all scorers with 26 points and Caedmon Liebengood and Teigan Edwards each scored 10. Cooper Smith added seven, Connor Miller scored five, Walker Blaine scored four, Branson Linn chipped in three, and Luke Anderson and Alex Bossinakis combined to score three.

Greenleaf nearly matched his career-high 21 points scored last season as he played 29 minutes and finished 7-11 from the floor and 6-9 from the FT line with eight rebounds, an assist, and a steal. McDuffie played just 11 minutes but made the most of them with his season-best 12 points as he was 4-5 from the floor, 1-2 from beyond the arc, and 3-3 at the FT line with one steal.

Beverly hit a pair of treys in seven attempts with a steal and a rebound in 21 minutes, Thomas played 25 minutes and was 1-6 from the floor, 2-2 at the FT line, with a trey and a rebound along with a steal and a blocked shot. Ned played 35 minutes and was 2-5 from the floor with six rebounds and a steal, Addison played 21 minutes and was 2-8 from the floor with five rebounds, five steals, an assist, and a blocked shot.

Collier played 13 minutes and was 1-2 from the floor and 2-2 at the FT line with two assists and two rebounds, Paul grabbed four boards with a pair of assists and a steal despite not scoring in 33 minutes, Brookter made his only shot attempt from the floor and grabbed a rebound in three minutes and Wilkerson played nine minutes and blocked a shot.

LeTourneau led 29-26 after a low-scoring first half but outscored Centenary 46-33 after the break to pull away for the win. A trey by Beverly gave the gents an 18-13 lead with 8:39 remaining in the first half, but a 7-0 run by LeTourneau gave the YellowJackets a 20-18 lead at the 5:38 mark. Collier sank a pair of FT's with 54 seconds left in the half to pull the Gents with a point at 27-26, but Logan Brinkoeter's layup with four seconds left made it 29-26 in favor of the YellowJackets.

Early in the second half, LeTourneau built its lead up to eight on multiple occasions, but Greenleaf's layup closed the gap to 43-40 with 10:56 left. But, the YellowJackets responded with a 10-0 run to increase their lead to 13 at 53-40 with 8:42 remaining. Jackson's trey at the 6:01 mark made it 62-42 and the YellowJackets kept the pressure on and maintained a comfortable lead for the rest of the half to secure the win.

The Gents return to action on Friday, Dec. 13 against Millsaps College at home in a non-conference game set for 7 p.m. in the Gold Dome.

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

Admission is FREE to all Centenary men's basketball home contests. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests.

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