Shreveport - The Centenary men's basketball team will open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play this weekend at home, beginning with a contest versus the Trinity University Tigers on Friday at approximately 7:30 p.m. at the Gold Dome.
Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/boxscores/20221202_1hai.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/event/centenary-college-vs-trinity-university-10/
The Gents (4-2) extended their season-best winning streak to three games with a 71-63 win on Saturday over the Texas College Steers in a non-conference contest at home. Trinity (5-2) defeated Hardin-Simmons 70-67 at home on Sunday in its most recent action. Centenary and Trinity split a pair of games last season, with the Gents winning at home 87-78 last December and the Tigers returning the favor in February with a 92-73 victory in San Antonio.
Friday's game will be a battle between two of the preseason favorites in the conference as Trinity was chosen as the winner of the league and the Gents were picked to finish fourth. The Tigers, coming off back-to-back SCAC Tournament Championship appearances for the first time since the 2013 and 2014 tournaments, returns their top six scorers and all five starters from a squad that led the SCAC in scoring for the first time since the 2004-05 season and reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since 2012-13.
The Gents have established themselves as one of the most successful programs in the conference, winning 45 conference games in the last five seasons and their 38 wins from 2017-21 season led the conference in that span. The Gents are now an impressive 25-13 in their last 38 conference games dating back to Jan. 25, 2020. Centenary has made four trips to the SCAC championship game, with two semifinal appearances and one title (2020-21 season).
Centenary enters the weekend an impressive 26-7 in its last 33 home games over the last three seasons. Centenary built a 44-22 halftime lead over Texas College on Saturday after a red-hot offensive start as the Maroon and White shot 45.7 % (16-35) from the floor, connected on 5-14 from beyond the arc for 35.7 % and went 7-9 at the free throw line (77.8 %).
Centenary finished 39.7 % for the game (25-63) overall, 26.1 % (6-23) from 3-point range, and 15-20 from the free throw line (75.0 %).
The Gents added to their halftime lead in the first few minutes of the second half, leading 51-25 at the 16:15 mark and led by double digits for the majority of the half, but the Steers managed to cut the Gents' lead to single digits at 63-55 with 3:00 remaining. Gents' senior F Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) delivered a momentum-shifting play with 2:25 remaining in the game as he beat the shot clock with a jumper as the buzzer sounded, was fouled and sank the free throw for the three-point play and a 66-55 lead.
A free throw by the Steers with 44 seconds left got them within seven points at 67-60 but senior G Ralph Johnson (White Castle, La.) made a pair of clutch free throws with 39 seconds remaining, and senior G Tykeem Singleton (Fort Worth, Texas) made a basket 15 seconds later to push the lead back to 71-60 as the Gents held off the Steers' late charge and sealed the win.
Thomas scored 13 points in 25 minutes on 5-8 shooting overall and finished 3-5 at the free throw line. Junior G Braeden Board (Rayne, La.) continued his impressive play as he scored a game-high 15 points on 4-12 shooting. Board was 6-7 at the free throw line, hit one trey, and grabbed seven rebounds with four assists and three steals. Johnson was 3-4 at the free throw line with two rebounds, two steals, and an assist in 16 minutes off the bench. Singleton was 4-11 from the floor in 26 minutes and finished with eight points, six rebounds and blocked one shot.
Senior G Jalen Behr (Athens, Ga.) scored nine points in his 15 minutes off the bench on 3-6 shooting with one trey and went 2-2 at the free throw line. He matched Board with a team-high seven rebounds and added an assist and a steal. Junior G Jerrick Baines (Alexandria, La.) scored eight points in 26 minutes on 3-10 shooting and hit a pair of 3-pointers. He had two assists and two rebounds. Senior G Kile Mingo (Cypress, Texas) scored seven points in 27 minutes, making 3-7 shots and hit one trey. He had two assists, two rebounds, and one steal.
Junior G Chrys Jackson (North Las Vegas, Nev.) chipped in four points off the bench in 18 minutes as he was 1-2 from 3-point range and 1-2 at the free throw line with four rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Freshman G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas) also scored four on 2-4 shooting in eight minutes of action. He had one steal and grabbed one rebound.
Saturday's game marked the third time this season that the Gents recorded double-digit assists and steals after doing so previously against both ETBU and Piedmont. Centenary also topped 40 rebounds for the third time this season and nearly matched its season high of 49 accomplished in its 101-64 season-opening win over Arlington Baptist on Nov. 8.
Centenary is currently fifth in the league in scoring at 72.7 PPG while Trinity is third at 81.2. The Gents, always stingy on the defensive end, are leading the conference in scoring defense at 67.7 PPG while the Tigers are fifth allowing 74.5. The Gents also rank third in FG % defense (41.8) and lead the league in turnover margin at +4.67 as they are forcing an average of 22.7 per game. Centenary averages 39.5 rebounds per game and shoots 41.6 % overall from the floor.
Thomas is the Gents' leading scorer this season (14.0 PPG) and ranks ninth in the league. He has reached double figures in five of six games and has one double-double. He scored a season-high 24 points, one shy of his career high, in the Gents' season opening win at home over Arlington Baptist, 101-64. Board is second on the team averaging 10.0 PPG, is tied for 21st in the SCAC, and has three double-digit scoring games this season. Thomas (6.5) and Board (5.8) are also the Gents' top two rebounders this season as Thomas is tied for seventh in the league and Board is 12th. Singleton ranks in a tie for 20th in the conference in rebounding at 4.7 per game and is averaging 6.7 PPG with a pair of double-digit scoring games.
Thomas also ranks 13th in the league in FG % (54.0), is tied for 10th in blocked shots, and is tied for third in offensive rebounds and Board and Thomas are tied for 13th in defensive rebounds. Thomas has played the fifth-most minutes in the conference this season (29.8 minutes/game) while Board ranks 10th at 27.3. Board is tied for fifth in the conference in blocked shots and is currently the top free throw shooter in the conference at 89.5 % with just two misses in 19 attempts this season.
Baines has made a big impact in his first season with the Maroon and White as he is averaging 8.4 PPG, is tied for 12th in the league in steals and tied for 15th in 3-point field goals made with six to go with a pair of double-digit scoring games.
A closer look at Trinity: The Tigers picked up a pair of hard-fought victories in last weekend's home-opening Leslie Robinson Thanksgiving Classic, knocking off McMurry University, 91-85, on Friday and Hardin-Simmons University, 70-67, on Sunday as a strong rebound from a 93-88 loss at Sul Ross State University the day before Thanksgiving in Alpine, Texas.
Senior AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) shouldered the load for Trinity last week averaging a double-double (17.7 points, 10 rebounds per game) including tying his career high of 25 points in Friday's victory over the Warhawks to go along with 13 rebounds and four assists.
After opening the 2022-23 campaign ranked 18th by D3hoops.com, the Tigers fell just outside the top-25 in the first regular-season poll this week following the midweek road loss to the Lobos. Trinity collected 12 points toward this week's rankings, ninth in line from the 25th spot. Clark leads the Tigers in multiple categories through the first seven games of the 2022-23 campaign, with 14.1 points, eight rebounds and 3.6 assists per game and is one of four Trinity players to have reached double-digit steals already this season.
Three other Tigers roam in double-digits on the offensive end between junior Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas), senior Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas) and sophomore Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas)
Trinity notably leads the SCAC with 9.9 steals per game this season as Brown and Clark have chipped in 11 and 10 steals thus far, respectively. A pair of Louisiana-natives in first-year Zach Fenn (Covington, La.) and senior Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La.) have powered the pick-pocket effort with 12 and 11 steals, respectively, with the rookie's team-high mark coming despite playing less than 10 minutes per game.
The Gents wrap up the weekend versus Schreiner University (6-1) on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m.
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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