San Antonio, Texas- The Centenary men's basketball team matched the division III era (2012-present) single-season record for wins with 18 on Friday night as the No. 3 seed Gents recorded a 57-47 victory over the Southwestern University Pirates in a quarterfinal contest of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship at the Ron & Genie Calgaard Gymnasium on the campus of Trinity University.
The Gents, making their 10th-straight appearance in the event, improved to 18-8 overall and won all three games this season against the No. 6 seed Pirates (10-16) and have won seven games in a row over them.
Centenary will face No. 2 seed Trinity (19-6, 12-4 SCAC) at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the second semifinal contest as the Tigers received a bye. No. 1 seed and regular-season champion St. Thomas (23-2, 16-0 SCAC) received a bye and will face No. 5 Schreiner (13-13) in Saturday's first semifinal set for 5 p.m. The championship game is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. The winner of this year's championship tournament will represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament as the league's automatic qualifier.
The Gents have now held 22 of their 26 opponents this season to 70 points or less, 60 or less 11 times, and to 55 or less 10 times. They have held five of their last eight opponents to 55 points or less and limited the Pirates to a paltry 26.8 % (11-41) shooting overall.
Centenary shot just 33.3 % (16-48) from the floor for the game but took a 31-20 halftime lead and despite being outscored 27-26 in the second half, secured a double-digit win. The Gents finished 9-32 from 3-point range for 28.1 % and 16-22 from the free-throw line for 72.7 %. The Pirates were a cold 5-28 from beyond the arc (17.9 %) and 20-31 at the FT line for 64.5 %.
The Pirates won a close rebounding battle, 36-34, but hurt themselves with 22 turnovers. They turned the ball over 13 times in the first half alone compared to just six made baskets. Centenary had 16 turnovers and scored 22 points off of the Pirates' miscues while Southwestern scored 17. Points in the paint were hard to come by, as Southwestern finished with a 12-10 edge. Centenary scored 12 second-chance points, three fast break points, and got 15 points from its bench. Southwestern received 19 bench points, scored five fast break points, and six second-chance points.
Senior F Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) and senior G Tykeem Singleton (Fort Worth, Texas) each scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Gents while senior G Jalen Behr (Athens, Ga.) added 13. Josh Jones and Brock Luechtefeld each scored 10 to pace the Pirates. Luke Hatcher and Preston Hannah combined for 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and a steal.
Junior G Braeden Board (Rayne, La.) and freshman G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas) each scored six points and junior G/F Dylan Hooter (Mandeville, La.) added two. Senior G Kile Mingo (Cypress, Texas) and senior G Ralph Johnson (White Castle, La.) did not score but combined for five rebounds, four assists, and a steal.
Thomas reached double figures for the 22nd time this season and made 5-10 shots from the floor in 34 minutes. He grabbed six rebounds and added three steals and one assist. Singleton was 4-9 from the floor, 3-8 from the 3-point line, and 4-4 at the FT line in 26 minutes. He had seven rebounds and three steals. Behr played 32 minutes and was 4-13 (all 13 attempts from beyond the arc) with seven boards, two steals, and an assist. He reached double figures for the eighth time this season and fifth time in the last eight games.
Beverly had two rebounds and an assist in his 28 minutes and was 2-5 overall and 2-2 at the FT line. Board was 4-7 at the FT line and 1-4 from the floor with six rebounds, a blocked shot, and a steal.
The Gents jumped out to a 12-3 lead at the 15:45 mark of the first half following a 3-pointer by Thomas and after a free throw by Behr with 7:50 remaining before the half, the Maroon and White led comfortably 20-6. A Jones trey made it 20-9 at the 7:17 mark and a steal by Hannah and another 3-pointer by Jones finally got the Pirates into double figures at 20-12 with 7:04 left in the half. Behr hit a trey with 33 seconds left to put the Gents back up double digits headed into the halftime locker room.
The Pirates were able to close their deficit back to single digits in the opening minutes of the second half, but the Gents began to pull away and led 41-26 with 11:41 remaining after a trey by Singleton. Just seconds later Behr hit from deep to make it 44-26 and Southwestern called a timeout. A pair of made free throws by Hannah with 4:35 remaining capped a 14-6 run by the Pirates to make the score 50-40. Southwestern would again whittle its deficit to single digits in the final minutes of the game, but four clutch FT's by Singleton and key rebounding down the stretch sealed the win for the Gents.
Saturday - Semifinals at Trinity University
Game 3 - 5 p.m. CT - #1 St. Thomas vs. #5 Schreiner
Game 4 - 7 p.m. CT - #2 Trinity vs. #3 Centenary
Sunday - Finals at Trinity University
Game 5 - 2 p.m. CT - Winner of Men's G3 vs. Winner of Men's G4
For more information on the 2023 SCAC Men's Basketball Tournament, click here for the official website.
See the Gents' complete season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/schedule
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