Shreveport – The Centenary men's basketball team fell 66-63 to St. Thomas on Friday night in a key Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest at the Gold Dome.
The Gents (6-3) and Celts (8-3) will play again on Saturday at approximately 4 p.m. Live stats and live video will be available at the links below:
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2020-21/boxscores/20210227_8g5d.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary
Both teams entered play on Friday assured of finishing as one of the top four seeds in the SCAC at the end of the regular season, meaning both the Gents and Celts will host first round games in the conference tournament next weekend.
The SCAC office announced a format change for the men's and women's basketball tournaments earlier this week, which will begin the weekend of March 5-7 on campus sites around the conference. 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.
First round play will be conducted the weekend of March 5-7, semifinals are scheduled for March 12-14 and the men's and women's championship will occur the weekend of March 19-21. The top four seeds will host first round games on both the men's and women's side, and the top remaining seeds will host semifinal and championship rounds.
The Gents, who entered the game as one of the top defensive teams in the conference and the country, held the Celts 12 points below their season average. Centenary came into the game leading the league in scoring defense, allowing just 60.2 points per game and was the conference leader in field goal percentage defense (.384 %) and ranked first in turnover margin. The Celts shot 40.7 % from the floor on Friday and turned it over 26 times. Centenary has now held its opponent under 70 points seven times in games this season.
The Maroon and White shot 32.9 % from the field for the night and were outrebounded 55-35. The Gents, however, took much better care of the ball than the Celts as they committed just 11 turnovers. Centenary had 13 steals and received 20 points off its bench. The Celts led 31-18 at halftime but Centenary's offense picked it up in the second half, outscoring St. Thomas by ten (45-35) and shooting a red-hot 50 % (17-34) from the floor and making five of their eight three-point attempts.
Sophomore guard Ralph Johnson (New Iberia, La.) led the Gents with 17 points, 15 coming after halftime. He made six of his seven attempts in the second half in 18 minutes and for the game he was 6-14 in 34 total minutes with an assist, a steal, and went 4-4 from the free-throw line. Sophomore forward Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) added 16 points in 30 minutes. He made 5 of his 18 attempts and nailed four three pointers. He grabbed four rebounds and had an assists and a pair of steals. He has now scored in double figures in eight of nine games this season and entered Friday's play ranked fifth in the SCAC in scoring (14.9 PPG).
Junior guard Kile Mingo (Cypress, Texas) scored 13 points off the bench as he made 5 of 12 shots overall in 32 minutes. He was 3-6 from the three-point line and grabbed seven rebounds and had two assists and three steals. Junior forward Neil Hawkins (Titusville, Fla.)grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench and added three points, three assists, two steals, and a block. Hawkins entered the game ranked third in the league in offensive rebounds and ninth in overall rebounding. He has now grabbed at least seven rebounds in five of the Gents' last six games. Junior guard AJ Hall (Thibodaux, La.) turned in an impressive performance with seven points, three rebounds, two assists, and three steals in 27 minutes.
Joshua Sanchez led four Celts in double figures with 13 points. Cameron Gims added 12, and Zach Golaszewski and Christian Alaekew each scored 10. Gims also had a game-high 18 rebounds. Centenary managed to hold freshman forward Adam Kanafani, who entered the game fourth in the league in scoring, to just three points on 1-4 shooting in 16 minutes.
The Gents managed to erase the 13-point halftime deficit when Johnson hit a jumper with 12:15 remaining in the second half to take a 40-39 lead, capping a 22-8 run to start the half. Johnson scored 10 points during that time while Thomas added three treys. The lead then changed hands several times over the next six and a half minutes and was tied at 50-50 at the 6:29 mark. The Celts, however, scored 11 of the next 14 points to take a 61-53 lead with 3:02 left in the game. Down six (64-56) with only 45 seconds remaining, the Gents cut it to four (64-60) on a jumper by Johnson with 18 seconds left but a pair of free throws sealed it for the visitors.
Despite the rare home loss, Centenary is still an impressive 16-3 in its last 19 conference games dating back to Jan. 25, 2020 and is 8-2 in its last 10 home games. Centenary, which went 10-1 at home last season, is now 13-3 in its last 16 games at the Gold Dome.
A link to the Gents' complete schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2020-21/schedule.
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