SUWANEE, Ga. - Tenth ranked Trinity escaped from Georgetown, Texas with a 75-73 win over the Southwestern University Pirates to extend the Tigers' win streak to 11 games back on January 9. In SCAC East action, DePauw's Mike Moore continued his hot play by averaging 29.5 points per game in two league wins, as they have now won five straight games.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin opened
the weekend with a 68-66 win over Millsaps on Friday but saw its
five game winning streak come to an end with a 67-62 loss at
Hendrix on Sunday afternoon. Against Millsaps, Spencer Burke
hit a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining to give the
‘Roos the win after the Majors had come back from a 15 point
halftime deficit. Against Hendrix, Kola Alade scored 23 points
and Kyle Lintelman and Adam Bishop each chipped in with 10 but it
wasn't enough to overcome the Warriors, who led for the final 19
minutes of the game. For the weekend, Alade averaged 20 points
per game while shooting nearly 57% from the field and 45.5% from
long distance. Lintelman added 13.5 points per game on 63.2%
shooting and Chris Sturtevant added eight points and eight boards
per game.
Birmingham-Southern (7-6) lost both its games this
week at DePauw and Centre. Friday, at DePauw, the Panthers
were unable to put two halves together and come away with a win,
falling 79-63. BSC did not score a point from 13:52 to 9:50 on
the clock - a span of over four minutes allowing the Tigers to jump
ahead for good. Sunday the road woes continued as the second
half did them in again. After cutting Centre's five-point
halftime lead down to three the Colonels rattled off eight straight
points and powered on to the win. The Panthers will try to get
back on track this weekend when they return to Bill Battle Coliseum
to host Trinity on Friday for at 6:00 p.m. and then a Sunday
afternoon matchup with Southwestern at 4:00 p.m.
Centre bounced back from its only SCAC conference
loss at the hands of DePauw the previous week to win two home SCAC
contests against Rhodes and Birmingham Southern. In the first
game of the conference weekend, Centre defeated Rhodes
87-50. The 37-point victory for the Colonels was the largest
margin of victory in the 2008-09 season. Centre capped off the
SCAC conference weekend by defeating Birmingham Southern,
69-59. The Colonels improve to 10-3 on the year and are 3-1 in
the SCAC with home league games against Colorado College and Austin
College up next.
Colorado College hung tough for 30 minutes, but
Millsaps College pulled away late in the second half to post a
78-62 victory on Sunday in Jackson, Miss. The Tigers trailed 53-49
when Lance Jacobs nailed one of his four three-pointers with 8:06
remaining in the game, but the Majors used a 14-5 run to extend
their lead to 13 points and CC was never able to get closer than
eight the rest of the way. Jacobs had 17 points to lead CC in
scoring for the fifth time this season. Jeremiah Waters reached
double figures for the second contest in a row with 11 points,
while Austin Perkins scored a career-high 10 points. Jarrell Sweet
scored a season-high 23 points at Hendrix on Friday, but the Tigers
dropped a 94-83 decision to the Warriors. CC will be back on the
road next weekend when they travel to Centre College and DePauw
University on Friday and Sunday, respectively, for the last of five
consecutive road games.
DePauw extended its win streak to five and
remained in a first-place tie in the SCAC East after wins over
Birmingham-Southern and Rhodes. The Tigers scored 17 straight
points in the second half on the way to the 79-63 win over the
Panthers on Friday. Mike Moore led DePauw with 28. In Sunday's win
over the Lynx, Moore was one point shy of equaling his career high
with 31 points as DePauw won by a 96-72 count. Moore moved into
15th place on DePauw's all-time scoring list with 1,251 points and
is second with 516 assists. For the week, he averaged 29.5 points,
6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists. The Tigers shot 50.0 percent from the
floor for the weekend and connected on 81.2 percent from the line.
After opening the season with two losses, the Tigers have won 10 of
their last 12. Three of their four defeats have been by six or
fewer points.
Hendrix went undefeated over the last week with
wins over University of Dallas, Colorado College and Austin
College. The Warriors defeated Dallas 82-70 on Tuesday before
taking down SCAC foes Colorado, 94-83, on Friday and Austin, 67-62,
on Sunday. Hendrix now stands at 11-3 overall and 4-1 in
league play with a two-game lead over Austin for the second seed in
the league's west division. Hendrix first year forward Nick
Heathscott posted a career-high 16 points, while first year guard
Chris Goodman and junior forward Michael Bertrand added 13 points
to the mix in the Warriors' win over the Crusaders. The
Hendrix offense caught fire midway through the first half and never
let up as the Warriors shot 50 percent from the field and 60
percent from 3-point land to chalk up a big win over the
Tigers. Warriors' senior forward Andrew King and junior
forward Michael Bertrand scored 16 points apiece to lead the
Warriors to their third win of the week over the
Kangaroos. Bertrand finished the week with 37 points and 21
rebounds, while junior guard Cal Rose tallied 33 points and was a
menace on defense with nine steals.
Millsaps played two
intense games picking up the split. The team lost its first home
game of the New Year to Austin College 68-66 on Friday. Then on
Sunday they were able to pick up a 78-62 victory over Colorado
College to notch its first conference win. Leading the way in the
gritty game against the ‘Roos, was senior guard Chris Sanders
who had 16 points to go along with nine boards and two steals. Also
having a solid showing was Chris Ingle with 12 points and a steal.
In the win against Colorado College, the Majors had four players in
double-digits, with Blake Martinez leading all scorers with 17
points. Right behind Martinez was Chad Songy who had 16 points to
go along with six assists. Rounding out the scoring for the majors
was Cameron Varnado with 15 points and Sanders with 12. Up next for
Millsaps is a 7:00 pm home showdown versus the University of
Dallas.
Oglethorpe won its only game of the week on
Saturday night against Sewanee, 83-74. In a game that featured huge
momentum swings, the Petrels were able to close out down the
stretch for the victory. Sewanee began the game on a 20-8 run only
to have Oglethorpe answer it with a massive 40-10 run of their own.
The Tigers then responded by scoring 22 of the next 24 points to
hold a 5 point lead midway through the second half before the
Petrels ended the game on a 30-16 run. David Allison led the
Petrels with 22 points on the back of a scorching 8 of 10 shooting
performance. Joe Kennedy piled up 20 points to go along with 5
assists and no turnovers and Todd Ward continued his stellar play
with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and one block.
Junior Wade Weldon tallied a double-double in the victory with 13
points and 10 rebounds. With the win, Oglethorpe sits atop the SCAC
East standings with a 10-3 (3-1 SCAC) record and will get set to
host Hendrix this Friday night at 6:00 p.m.
Rhodes dropped a pair of conference road games
this week to Centre College and DePauw University. The Lynx
lost 87-50 on Friday night to Centre. Cory Smith led the Lynx
with 14 points and Andyshea Saberioon chipped in another
12. Kory Kilpatrick led the Lynx with a game high 9
rebounds. On Sunday afternoon, the Lynx couldn't overcome the
hot first half shooting of DePauw as they dropped a 96-72
decision. Cory Smith scored 22 points and Andyshea Saberioon
added another 12. Jeff Blumenthal led the Lynx with 6
rebounds. With the losses the Lynx drop to 6-7 overall and 0-4
in the SCAC. Rhodes will be in action this weekend as they
host SCAC foes, Southwestern University and Trinity University on
Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.
Sewanee played at SCAC foe Oglethorpe on Saturday
night and the host Stormy Petrels increased their seven-point lead
at the half to nine for an 83-74 win over the visiting Tigers.
Sewanee made better than half of its field goals, but Oglethorpe
came in shooting 60% from the floor. Sewanee out-rebounded
Oglethorpe 28-19 and both teams shot 47% from behind the
three-point line. Seniors Bradley Pierson and Ben Pursell led
Sewanee's effort with 23 and 21 points respectively. Sewanee fell
to 3-9 and are currently 1-3 in the league. The Tigers will host
Millsaps and Hendrix next weekend in SCAC play.
Southwestern went 1-1 one on the week to move to
9-4 overall and 1-4 in the conference. Friday, the Pirates
matched-up against conference rival Trinity and dropped a
heartbreaker, 75-73 despite shooting 61.1% behind the arc and 56.5%
from the field. Free-throws proved to be the difference as SU went
10-22 from the charity stripe while Trinity made 17 of its 23
free-throws. Four Pirates scored in double figures led by junior
guards Zach Bergstrom and Anthony Cox who each scored 14 points.
Sunday, the Pirates continued their sharp shooting and downed the
University of Dallas, 85-20. SU shot 53.7% from the field and 52.2%
from three-point range. Bergstrom led the Pirates with 24
points, going 5-8 from three-point. SU travels to Rhodes College on
Friday and Birmingham-Southern on Saturday.
No. 10 Trinity won its only game of the week, defeating Southwestern 75-73 on the road on Friday night and extending the team's winning streak to 11 games. Luke Caldarera led Trinity with 22 points and eight rebounds, connecting on 7-12 from the field and 8-10 from the line. He hit 7-8 free throws in the final minute to help clinch the narrow victory. B.J. Moon added 12 points, while Dwight Lutz and Nick Polidoroff came off the bench with 10 points each in the win. Charles Houston had a solid all-around game with six points, seven boards, and five steals for the Tigers. The win was the eighth in a row against Southwestern, as well as the 12th in the last 13 games for Trinity. The last two games in Georgetown have been decided by a total of three points. Trinity will be on the road again next weekend, continuing SCAC play at Birmingham-Southern and Rhodes.
For the complete SCAC Men's Hoops Weekly for Week 8, click here.