SUWANEE, Ga. - SCAC play began the weekend of December 5-7 and saw three teams escape the weekend with undefeated records. No. 23 Centre College and Trinity University both finished 2-0 in league play while Hendrix College ended the first weeke of SCAC play with a 1-0 mark.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin split
its weekend games against Southwestern and Trinity, opening the
SCAC season at 1-1 and moving to 3-3 overall. Against
Southwestern the ‘Roos got big games from Kola Alade and
Spencer Burke to lead them to a 64-60 win. Alade scored a
game-high 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out six
assists in the win, while Burke hit 6-of-8 from the floor on his
way to 12 points, eight boards and four blocked
shots. Against Trinity, the ‘Roos took a 30-28
lead into the half but a dominant performance on the boards and a
22-8 run to open the second half allowed the Tigers to take a 74-62
win. Alade once again led all scorers with 20 points,
including three triples, and handed out three assists.
Birmingham-Southern (3-3) fell to the Cardinals of
Otterbein College Monday night at Bill Battle Coliseum,
78-68. It was the second loss in a row for the Panthers and
their only game last week. The Panthers were led by Aaron
Parr with 22 points to lead all scorers, Roger Williams added 14
with Nathan West chipping-in for 10 on the night. Otterbein's
Ian Gardner had 18 points. Roger Williams pulled down the
most Panther boards with five. BSC will return to the court
this Saturday, December 13th to host Southeastern Bible
College. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. from Bill
Battle Coliseum.
No. 18 Centre earned three wins on the week,
defeating Berea at home and then Sewanee and Oglethorpe on the road
to open SCAC play. The Colonels allowed Berea to shoot only 22.1%
(15-68) in a 74-44 win over the Mountaineers. Centre then allowed
Sewanee to shoot only 26.1% (12-46) allowing only 15 first half
points in a 60-39 SCAC-opening win. Then after trailing 34-31 at
halftime against Oglethorpe, the Colonels took the lead early in
the second half and held on for a 64-59 win over the Stormy
Petrels. The Colonels are now 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the SCAC and
have now won 16 straight regular season games away from
Danville.
Sophomore forward Brady Ohlsen had 16 points and a career-high 14
rebounds to lead Colorado College
to a 71-56 victory over Southwestern University on Saturday night.
It was the first-ever victory for the Tigers in a Southern
Collegiate Athletic Conference game. The Tigers made a season-high
11 three-point shots and had their second-highest shooting average
from behind the arc at .393. The 56 points scored by SWU were the
fewest allowed by Colorado College this season. CC improved to 1-1
in the conference and 2-8 overall. Colorado College is 2-1 against
Division III competition. Nick Rose led the Tigers with 19 points,
while Lance Jacobs and Jarrell Sweet added 15 and 12 points,
respectively. CC dropped its conference opener to Trinity
University on Friday by a 73-59 count. Jacobs and Ohlsen led the
Tigers with 15 points while Rose added 11. Rose has scored
double-figure points in nine of 10 games. Jacobs had a season-high
five assists against the Pirates. CC's 15-point win over
Southwestern was its largest margin of victory since defeating
UC-Santa Cruz 90-68 on Jan. 20, 2007.
DePauw completed a
2-1 week after opening with a 67-57 win over Wabash before losing
at Oglethorpe, 67-63, and defeating Sewanee 73-63. DePauw built a
17-point first half lead against Wabash and held on for the
win. Mike Moore led all scorers with 21, while Steve Lemasters
added 11 and Joe Bergfeld 10. Ryan Russell grabbed six rebounds to
lead DePauw which held a 37-31 edge on the boards. The Tigers led
by as many as 12 in the first half at Oglethorpe before the Stormy
Petrels put together a 24-5 run in the second half to lead by as
many as 13. DePauw got as close as two in the final minute. Tom
Callen paced DePauw with a career-high 20, while Moore added 14.
Drew Wills grabbed six rebounds, while Moore and Tony James each
dished out six assists. Callen set a new scoring career high with
23 in the win over Sewanee and added 10 rebounds for the
double-double. Moore scored 22 and Lemasters added 16. Moore moved
into 20th place on DePauw's all-time scoring list with 1,104 career
points.
Hendrix went 2-0 this week with a 79-65 win over
Rust College on Tuesday night and a 73-61 victory over Millsaps
College on Saturday afternoon. The Warriors have now won five
straight since dropping their season opener and improve to1-0 in
SCAC action with their win over the Majors. Hendrix junior
forward Michael Bertrand paced the Warriors with 17 points and nine
rebounds, while junior guard Cal Rose knocked down four 3-pointers
and tallied 16 points in Hendrix's home opener on Tuesday. The
Warriors exploded for a 20-8 run that started with 14:51 remaining
in regulation to pull away for the win. Bertrand was 6-of-10 from
the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. The
Warriors opened its first league game of the year and never looked
back as they did not see a deficit the entire game on Saturday.
Martin scored a career-high 19 points in the Warriors' victory over
the defending SCAC Tournament champions. Martin's game-high
performance came off 7-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-4
from the free-throw line.
Millsaps (1-6, 0-1
SCAC) continues its struggle for points with two tough losses this
week. In the 75-73 overtime loss to Huntingdon College lighting
struck the Majors twice in the form of Doug Murry who had two
last-minute three point shots to give the Hawks the victory. Three
Majors were in double figures on the night, led by Blake Martinez
who had 22 points and seven boards. Russell Booth ended the night
with a career-high 18 points, six rebounds and one blocked shot,
while Chris Sanders joined the double figures group with his 10
points and 10 rebounds. Senior Chad Songy had a career-high 10
assist to go along with five steals. In the first conference loss
of the year 61-73 to the hot-shooting Hendrix College who shot 51
percent from the floor. The Majors had three in double figures yet
again, in spite of the cold shooting syndrome that has come over
their teammates who shot for 35 percent from the floor.
Oglethorpe split its first two conference games at
home this past weekend. On Friday against DePauw, the Petrels
stormed back from a 9 point halftime deficit to tame the Tigers,
67-63. After a dismal first half that saw both teams combine to go
2 of 30 from three-point range, the Petrels rallied in the second
stanza to record 49 points en route to the conference win. Leading
the way for the Petrels was sophomore guard Joe Kennedy who
recorded all 20 of his points in the second half. Todd Ward also
notched 14 points and 13 rebounds in the win. On Sunday, the
Petrels were plagued by poor shooting on their way to a 64-59
against No. 23 Centre. Despite holding a 3 point halftime advantage
and a 7 point cushion early in the second half, Oglethorpe's
shooters went cold and the Colonels were able to claim the
hard-fought victory. The Petrels were again led by a
double-double from Todd Ward with 18 points and 11 rebounds in the
loss.
Rhodes went 1-1 this week. On December 1st
they continued their road success with a 90-44 win against
Principia College. The Lynx placed 11 different players in the
scoring column, led by senior Cory Smith's 16 points. Smith
also grabbed 11 rebounds, posting his first double-double of the
season. Kory Kilpatrick and Dean Shroyer were the other Lynx
in double digits with 12 and 10 respectively. Rhodes dominated
Principia on the boards, holding a 58-31 advantage including 17
offensive rebounds. On Saturday, December 6th, the Lynx lost
to the University of Dallas 60-60. Poor free throw shooting
doomed the Lynx. Cory Smith continued his scoring ways with a
22 point performance. Nathan Ollie chipped in 16 points
including 3 three pointers. Smith had 9 rebounds and
Kilpatrick 7. Rob Bledsoe continued his defensive presence
with 7 blocks.
Sewanee dropped to 2-6 this weekend with SCAC
losses to Centre and DePauw at home in Sewanee. Bradley Pierson is
leading Tiger scoring for the year with an 18.4 ppg average and he
kept up the double digit performances this weekend with showings of
10 and 17 points. Ben Pursell leads Sewanee with seven rebounds per
game and scored a team high 18 points on Sunday. Pursell is just 39
points from hitting the 1,000 career point mark. Sewanee will play
at Emory Tuesday to wrap up play for the semester.
Southwestern went 1-2 on the week winning at home
over the University of Dallas on Tuesday night and dropping two
away contests, at Austin College on Friday and at Colorado College
on Saturday. Freshman guard Ryan Chavez was the leading scorer for
the Pirates on Tuesday night posting 13 points on the night.
Fourteen Pirates scored during the contest against the University
of Dallas. Junior guard Anthony Cox led the Pirates against Austin
College with 13 points. He was followed by Zach Bergstrom and
Andrew McDonald who posted 12 and 10 points respectively. A
balanced effort on Saturday night couldn't push Southwestern past
Colorado College. Sophomore guard Nick Caputo led with 10 points.
The Pirates will break for the week before returning to action
against Marian on Thursday, December 18th at 7:00 at
home.
No. 25 Trinity opened up conference play on the road last weekend, sweeping Colorado College and Austin College to take the early lead in the SCAC standings. The Tigers opened with a 73-59 win over Colorado College, thanks to a career-high 29 points and 10 rebounds from Luke Caldarera. Charles Houston chipped in with 11 points and four steals. On Sunday at Austin College, Caldarera led the team once again with 15 points and a career-best 15 boards, and Trinity earned a 74-62 win. Michael Tobolowsky came off the bench to score a career-high 10 points for the Tigers as well. Houston picked up his 400th career rebound over the weekend, becoming the 20th player in school history to reach the milestone. The last was Trinity's assistant coach Ross Burt, who finished with 433 rebounds from 2002-06. Houston also moved into fourth place all-time in steals at Trinity, needing just three more to move into second place on the career list. Trinity will not play again until December 18-19 at the Southwestern/Trinity Holiday Classic.
For the complete SCAC Men's Hoops Weekly for Week 4, click here.