KERRVILLE, Texas - The Austin College men's basketball team rallied back from a big first half deficit but was unable to overcome defending Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion Texas Lutheran, falling 79-72 on Saturday night in the conference semifinals. The 'Roos finish the season with an overall record of 14-12.

Texas Lutheran sprinted out to a 13-3 lead and pushed that margin to 25-12, but Austin College closed the first half on a 23-10 run to square things up at 35 apiece heading into halftime. Justice Mercadel scored nine first half points and Roman Strickland came off the bench to add eight as Austin College fought back to even things up, and the 'Roos shot 50% from the field in the opening 20 minutes compared to a 36.4% clip for the Bulldogs. However, TLU grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and outscored Austin College 7-to-3 from the free throw line in the first half.

The teams traded buckets throughout the second half, with the 'Roos pulling ahead 61-60 on a three-point play by Mercadel with 5:14 left to play. However, that would be the last lead of the game for Austin College as TLU went ahead 64-63, and following a bucket by Devin Roland to cut it to 64-63, Texas Lutheran scored the next six to make it 70-63 with 1:22 remaining in the game.

Michael Holland led five Austin College players in double figures with 17 points, and Mercadel finished with 15. Roland added 13, while Strickland finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Kam Hogan chipped in 10 points for Austin College. Sebastian Andrade led all scorers with 38 points for Texas Lutheran, going 19-of-21 from the free throw line and adding 10 rebounds for the Bulldogs.