Gents Hit Road This Weekend For Battle At Top Of League Standings
The Centenary men's basketball team hits the road this weekend for a pair of key Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contests beginning on Friday against the Schreiner University Mountaineers set for 5:30 p.m. inside Stephens Family Arena.
Kerrville, Texas - The Centenary men's basketball team hits the road this weekend for a pair of key Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contests beginning on Friday against the Schreiner University Mountaineers set for 5:30 p.m. inside Stephens Family Arena.
Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:
Stats: https://www.schreinermountaineers.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/boxscores/20240112_ia8m.xml
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/schreiner/
The Gents (9-6, 4-2 SCAC) bring a season-high four-game winning streak into Friday's action against the Mountaineers (9-6, 4-2 SCAC). Schreiner, however, has lost three games in a row and two conference contests in a row in which both were one-point losses – 82-81 at Trinity on Jan. 2 and 77-76 at Colorado College on Sunday.
Centenary will face the Trinity University Tigers (15-0, 6-0 SCAC) on Saturday at 4 p.m. Schreiner is 3-1 at home this season while Centenary is 3-6 on the road and 1-2 away from home in league games with losses at St. Thomas and Austin College and a win over Dallas. The Gents and Mountaineers are currently tied for third in the conference standings.
The Gents are averaging 75.6 PPG as a team this season which ranks fifth in the league and shooting 40.6 % from the floor which ranks seventh. Centenary averages 34.3 rebounds/game, 11.5 assists/game, and shoots 30.9 % from beyond the arc and 71.7 % from the free throw line. Schreiner is the league's top scoring team (83.3 PPG) and ranks 40th in the country in division III. The Mountaineers shoot 47.8 % from the floor, 37.9 % from 3-point range, and 76.4 % from the FT line while averaging 37.9 rebounds per game and 14.3 assists/game.
Centenary and Schreiner are both well-balanced teams, ranking in the top five in the conference in a variety of team statistical categories heading into Friday's matchup. The Mountaineers and Gents were picked to finish fourth and fifth respectively in the conference's preseason poll. The teams split a pair of meetings last season with the Gents winning the first matchup 84-79 at the Gold Dome and the Mountaineers returning the favor later in the season in Kerrville, 68-54.
Centenary has held eight opponents to 70 points or less this season and has done so in five of its last six games as only Colorado College, who scored 71 points in Dec. 31, has topped 70 points against the Gents' stingy defense. Dating back to last season, the Gents have held 31 of their 42 opponents to 70 points or less.
Gents' Individual Season Statistical Leaders:
Scoring: Senior F Seth Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) – 18.7 PPG (First in SCAC/Tied for 84th in country in DIII)
Rebounding: Thomas – 8.5 RPG (Third in SCAC/91st in country in DIII)
Assists: Thomas – 3.1/game (Third in SCAC)
Blocks: Thomas and senior G Braeden Board (Rayne, La.) – 0.7/game each
Steals: Senior G Tykeem Singleton (Fort Worth, Texas) – 2.0/game
The Gents finished off a perfect weekend at home on Sunday afternoon following a 75-58 victory over the Southwestern University Pirates which followed an 83-60 win on Friday over the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs. Centenary, now 6-0 at home this season, has won 41 of its last 49 home games and 17 of 19. Centenary finished with a season-best 14 steals in the win over Southwestern and has posted 10+ steals in a game twice this season and 10+ assists an impressive 10 times.
Singleton, who rejoined the team prior to the Gents' win over Colorado College on New Year's Eve, picked up right where he left off last season as he is averaging 11.0 PPG and scored a season-high 15 points in the Southwestern win. He also averages 4.7 rebounds per game and shoots 57.1 % from the floor. Senior G AJ Hall (Thibodaux, La.) is averaging 9.4 PPG and has reached double figures four times this season and has done so three times in his last four games.
Junior F Jakobi Greenleaf (Houston, Texas) averages 8.8 PPG and has seven double-figure scoring games this season. Junior G Craig Collier (North Little Rock, Ark.) averages 8.1 PPG and scored a season-high 26 points in the win last Friday over TLU as he reached double figures for the fifth time this season. His 26 points are the sixth-highest point total by a SCAC player in a game this season. senior G Jalen Behr (Athens, Ga.) averages 6.9 PPG, sophomore G Quentin Beverly (Katy, Texas) averages 6.7, and freshman F Khristian Wilkerson (Killeen, Texas) averages 5.9.
Thomas, a favorite for conference Player of the Year through six games of league play, is in the midst of another sensational season for the Maroon and White. He has scored in double figures in 14 of his 15 games this season and recorded his fourth double-double of the season on Sunday against Southwestern with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Thomas scored a career-high 34 points in the Gents' 91-87 win at Dallas on Dec. 2, which is the second-points scored by a SCAC player in a game this season. He has been named the SCAC Men's Basketball Player of the Week twice this season as he aims to be named all-conference for the fourth time in his career this season.
Thomas joined the 1,000-point club last season, doing so on Feb. 14, 2023 at St. Thomas as he is now one of just 36 in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark. He joined the 500-rebound club on Jan. 29, 2023 against Texas Lutheran, as he becomes just the 19th player in program history to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds in a career.
Schreiner's leading scorer this season is junior C Kamden Ross (17.4) as he ranks third in the conference in PPG and is the league's leading rebounder at 11.9/game. Junior G Dylan Mackey (15.1 PPG) and junior G Beau Cervantes (10.0 PPG) also average double figures.
The Gents are led by seventh-year head coach Chris Dorsey, who is of the top young coaches in the country and has taken the program to new heights in his six-year tenure. He is 94-66 with the Gents including an impressive 60-36 mark in conference play.
Last season, the Gents had one of their best seasons in program history as they finished 18-9 overall and 10-6 in conference play and tied the division III era (2012-present) single-season record for wins. Centenary earned the No. 3 seed in the SCAC Tournament as the Maroon and White made their 10th-straight appearance in the event where they defeated Southwestern in the quarterfinals before falling to host and No. 2 seed Trinity in the semifinals. Centenary has now finished .500 or better in all six seasons under Dorsey and has made four trips to the SCAC championship game with two semifinal appearances.
The Gents have established themselves as one of the most successful programs in the conference under Dorsey's direction, winning 59 regular-season conference games and their 38 wins from 2017-21 led the conference in that span. The Gents are now an impressive 35-19 in their last 54 regular-season conference games dating back to Jan. 25, 2020. Centenary has also established a significant home-court advantage, as the Maroon and White went 11-2 at the Gold Dome last season, setting a D3-era single-season record for home wins.
Centenary, the only SCAC program to advance to four-straight tournament semifinals, will host the 2024 SCAC Tournament Feb. 23-25 at the Gold Dome. The top six teams in the standings at the conclusion of the regular season qualify for the event.
Current SCAC Standings:
1 Trinity 15-0, 6-0 SCAC
2 St. Thomas 13-2, 5-1 SCAC
T3 Centenary 9-6, 4-2 SCAC
T3 Schreiner 9-6, 4-2 SCAC
5 Colorado College 7-6, 3-3 SCAC
6 Dallas 6-9, 3-4 SCAC
7 Austin College 6-9, 2-5 SCAC
8 Texas Lutheran 3-13, 2-5 SCAC
9 Southwestern 1-15, 0-7 SCAC
See the complete Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/mbkb/2023-24/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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