GEORGETOWN, Texas - SU played a gutsy game against east leading Birmingham-Southern on Friday night, leading through the better part of the first 30 minutes of the game, but ultimately fell after a strong final push by the Panthers 81-62.

Southwestern streaked out of the gates with a 10-0 run through the first five minutes, forcing the Panthers into four turnovers in just five minutes of action. BSC pushed back, however, with a run of their own to take a brief lead 11-10 on a layup by Caleb Lee. Nick Atiee (pictured) had the answer, draining a three the next time down the floor to hand the lead back to SU.

Defense took over in the second part of the first half as the teams tied the game for the sixth time, 28-28 with 2:33 to play. The contest remained deadlocked at 28 heading into halftime.

BSC opened the second half from the free throw line, making three, to claim and early led but SU answered with an 8-0 run to regain control, 36-31 three minutes into second half. The Panther's Kevin Kegar got hot from three point range to tie the contest for the eighth time, 40-40 with just under 15 to go.

Michael Cantu hit a lay-up on the out-of-bounds play and converted on the and-one free throw to break the stalemate and give SU the lead once again 43-40 with 12:35 remaining.

The Panther's Nick Murphy answered with a three pointer to tie the contest once again but another three by Kegar followed by a layup in transition by Griffin Schamp gave BSC an all-important five point lead, 45-50 with just under 11 to play.

After trading baskets the Pirates pulled within two, 62-60, after a big layup by James Davenport in transition. Once again Birmingham-Southern had the answer with back-to-back threes by Jasen Jonus, putting the Panthers up by 11 and the game out of reach for Southwestern as the Pirates weren't able to get the big baskets they needed to chip away at the lead.  

Southwestern shot 35.7% from three point range while BSC couldn't miss in the second half shooting 69.6% from the field and 72.7% from three point range in the second half alone. Cantu led Southwestern in scoring with 13 points while James Davenport added in 11. Kevin Kegarise led all scorers with 16 points.

The loss drops SU to 1-13 on the year and 1-4 in the SCAC. They return to action at home on Saturday night, facing Oglethorpe at 8pm.