Houston – The Centenary men's basketball team fell, 94-68, in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest on Saturday to the St. Thomas Celts at the Jerabeck Center.
Centenary dropped its second game in a row and sits at 8-8 overall and 5-4 in SCAC play. St. Thomas improved to 15-1 overall and 8-1 in SCAC action and remained unbeaten at home this season. Despite Saturday's loss, the Gents are still in fourth place in the SCAC standings, just behind the University of Dallas and just ahead of Austin College and Trinity.
Senior guard Cedric Harris (Shreveport) once again led the Maroon and White in scoring, as he poured in 23 points in 35 minutes, as he has reached double figures in all 16 Centenary games this season. He added nine rebounds as he just missed his sixth double-double of the season as he made eight of 24 shots from the field and connected on six of 14 three-point attempts. He topped the 20-point mark for the 10th time this season. Harris was named the SCAC Player of the Week last Monday for the second time this season and has scored a whopping 80 points and grabbed 36 rebounds in the Gents' last three games.
Harris scored a game-high and season-best 32 points in 38 minutes last Sunday at home against Texas Lutheran. Harris, who also scored 32 against Texas Lutheran last season, nearly matched his career best mark of 34 (set last season at ETBU) as he shot 10-27 from the field and made six of 15 three-point shots. He scored 25 points with 17 rebounds in 31 minutes of Centenary's 84-74 win over Southwestern on Jan. 10. Harris, who entered the game as the second-leading scorer in the SCAC at 19.6 points per game is now averaging 19.8 after his 23 points against the Celts. Harris also ranked third in the conference in rebounding (8.3 rebounds per game) and had made the most three pointers in the conference (60) and made six more Saturday. Harris was also second in the SCAC in defensive rebounds with 107 and picked up eight more.
Freshman guard Ralph Johnson (New Iberia, La.) scored 18 points, nearly setting his season high of 19 set last Sunday against Texas Lutheran. Johnson played 38 minutes and made 7-16 shots from the field and had four assists and three rebounds. Sophomore forward Neil Hawkins (Titusville, Fla.) joined Harris and Johnson in double figures as he scored 10 points in 24 minutes and grabbed 10 rebounds for his second double-double this season. St. Thomas had three players score in double figures, led by Joshua Sanchez's 17.
Centenary shot 34.2 % (25-73) from the floor for the game while the Celts shot 45 % (36-80). Centenary forced 12 turnovers and had four steals and four blocks and only turned the ball over 10 times. The game featured two of the top offenses in the SCAC as St. Thomas entered the game leading the league in scoring, averaging 90.1 points per game and nearly reached that mark on Saturday. The Gents were averaging 77.1 per game, third-best in the SCAC. Saturday marked just the fourth time this season that Centenary has allowed an opponent to score 80 or more points in a game.
Centenary is back on the road next weekend as the Gents head west to face Colorado College (Jan. 24) and Johnson and Wales (Jan. 25) in SCAC play. Centenary's next home game will be on Friday, Jan. 31 versus Schreiner at 5:30 p.m. Five of Centenary's final seven games will be played at home.
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