Men's Basketball Recap (Week 6) - Around the SCAC

Men's Basketball Recap (Week 6) - Around the SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - Paced by a 71-66 home win over conference rival and previously unbeaten Birmingham-Southern, the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels extended their winning streak to six games on Jan. 1. The win improved Oglethorpe to 8-3 overall and 3-0 in the SCAC.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College went 2-1 over the holidays with a 71-56 win over LeTourneau on December 30 and a 69-59 win over Trinity before dropping its first SCAC game of the season against Southwestern. The 'Roos are now 8-3 overall and 3-1 in conference play. Against LeTourneau, Nick Wade knocked down 3-of-5 threes on his way to a team high 13 points while Kola Alade and Josh Saunders added 11 and 10, respectively. Alade scored 22 and added five assists to lead four players in double figures in the 10 point win at Trinity with Arron Mewbourn added 12 and Saunders and Scott Straley each scored 10. In the loss to the Pirates Alade was the lone 'Roo to reach double figures, scoring 15 points and adding seven boards and four assists in the loss.

Birmingham-Southern split its first conference road weekend, falling 71-67 at Oglethorpe on Friday before topping Sewanee 75-61 on Sunday. These games put the Panthers at 9-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play. BSC’s shooting deserted them on Friday in the Panthers’ first loss of the season. ‘Southern went 3-of-19 from three against the Petrels and only held one short-lived lead as a result. Sunday was not much better from distance, but enough fell to level-peg the Tigers. Both squads hit seven threes on the night, but this time BSC never trailed thanks to strong starts in both halves. BSC will return to action Wednesday night as they host Asbury College at 7:00 p.m. in Bill Battle Coliseum. They will resume conference play at Rhodes on Saturday afternoon.

After opening the season 1-4, Centre has reeled off five straight wins, including three this past week. The Colonels hosted their annual holiday tournament and defeated both Emory & Henry (80-70) and LaGrange (71-47) to finish as the only team with a 2-0 record. Centre then opened the new year by rallying to defeat DePauw 65-61 in an SCAC contest. Centre, which trailed by as many as 11 points to DePauw in the second half, committed a season-low six turnovers in the game and out-rebounded the Tigers 37-31 for its fifth win in the last six games. Centre, now 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the SCAC, will host Oglethorpe and Sewanee this weekend.

Colorado College overcame early foul trouble and its worst performance of the season at the free-throw line to post a 52-47 victory over Southwestern. Nick Rose poured in a game-high 24 points to pace the Tiger offense for the eighth time in 10 games. He added season-highs of nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Brady Ohlsen pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds and added nine points. Colorado College made just 12 of 26 free throws, including eight of 18 during the second half. Ohlsen scored 17 points, but CC suffered its first conference loss with a 60-50 setback at Trinity University. Rose scored 29 points to lead the Tigers to an 81-58 victory at Macalester. The junior guard buried five of seven three-point attempts. He also had a team-high six rebounds, three assists and two steals. The Tigers play host to Austin College on Saturday and Johnson & Wales University on Sunday.

DePauw posted a 1-2 record over the previous two weeks with a 58-46 win over Adrian in the opening game of the Defiance College Purple and Gold Financial Tournament, an 89-75 loss to host Defiance in that tournament's championship game and a 65-61 SCAC defeat at Centre. Senior guard Tony James and sophomore guard Sean Haseley each earned spots on the all-tournament team. The Tigers held an 11-point lead early in the second half at Centre and still led by eight with 10 minutes to play before the Colonels scored 11 straight over a 4:45 stretch to take the lead. The Tigers had a chance to tie the contest late, but Centre blocked the shot and the Colonels hit two free throws with 24 seconds remaining to seal the win. Steve Lemasters led the Tigers with 17 points which included three-pointers on three straight possessions in a 1:40 stretch. David Gray blocked five shots to lift his career total to 89 which broke the DePauw career record of 88.

Hendrix did not play last week. The Warriors return to action tonight at the University of Dallas and will kick off the heart of their SCAC schedule this weekend when they host Trinity University of Friday night and Southwestern University on Sunday afternoon. Hendrix takes a 4-4 overall record and 1-2 conference mark into this week’s action.

Millsaps split a pair of games in the Cabot Lodge-Millsaps Holiday Tournament, falling in the final seconds to Huntingdon College, 61-57, before rebounding to beat East Texas Baptist, 69-67, thanks to senior Blake Martinez’s 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left in regulation. The Majors led by 14 over the Hawks on Saturday, who a day later won the championship game over Rust, but fell victim to a 6:50 scoring drought late in the half as Huntingdon rallied for the win behind Leon Frazier’s game-high 20 points. Millsaps bounced back from a season-low 31 percent shooting performance against Huntingdon to steal a 69-67 win over ETBU on Sunday, using six 3s from Martinez, including the game-winner. Jairus Browning also had a game and career-high five assists to go along with five points in 17 minutes of action. The Majors will continue a 7-game home stand next weekend, hosting Southwestern and Trinity Jan. 8 and 9.

Oglethorpe continued its winning ways over the Christmas holiday by topping Colby College, Birmingham-Southern and Rhodes. In the win over Colby, The Petrels used a swarming defense that forced 21 Mule turnovers on their way to claiming victory, 88-82. Alex Richey connected on 8 of 14 attempts from the field to lead all scorers with 23 points on the evening. Junior Todd Ward posted 15 points and 13 rebounds in the win. David Allison added 16 points and seven assists for the Petrels. OU saddled Birmingham-Southern with their first loss of the year by the score of 71-67. The Petrels were led by Ward's 20 points, nine rebounds and four blocks on the evening. Against Rhodes on Sunday, Richey led the charge for Oglethorpe on the afternoon with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. With the holiday wins Oglethorpe is now 8-3 (3-0) on the season and will get set to travel to face Centre College this Friday at 8:00 p.m.

Rhodes split two conference games this weekend to ring in 2010. In the first matchup they beat Sewanee 67-42 behind a smothering defense that held the Tigers to just 19.7% shooting from the field. Offensively, the Lynx shot 53.2% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc. Kory Kilpatrick paced three double digit scorers with a career high 19 points. Reid Hamilton and Andyshea Saberioon each scored 13 points for the Lynx. Kilpatrick also grabbed a team high 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Saberioon grabbed seven steals and dished out four assists. Against Oglethorpe, the Lynx limited OU to just 32.7% shooting. The Lynx could not close the game in the final four minutes though and lost 61-55. Larry Cunningham led the Lynx with 16 points.

Sewanee dropped a pair of SCAC games at home this week with losses to rival Rhodes on Friday and Birmingham-Southern on Sunday. Trent Williams and Tyler Brown led Sewanee on Friday with 19 points and 15 rebounds, respectively. On Sunday, Zack Mulligan had 18 points in the Tiger offensive effort. Sewanee is now 3-8 and 0-3 in the league. The Tigers will play at DePauw and Centre this weekend.

Southwestern went 2-2 over the holiday break including going 1-1 in SCAC play after the new year. SU headed to San Antonio right after Christmas to face out-of-state opponents Dominican and Illinois Wesleyan. The Pirates easily handled Dominican in the first game, winning 79-54, and then fell to a hot Illinois Wesleyan team 91-75. Following the new year, Southwestern returned home for two SCAC games. They took on Colorado College on Saturday afternoon and hit a rough shooting night and dropped their first conference game 52-47. SU rebounded on Sunday and returned to their hot shooting ways defeating Austin College 78-63 to hand AC their first conference loss. Southwestern currently sits at 9-3 overall and 2-1 in the SCAC. They will head to Millsaps on Friday and Hendrix on Sunday.

Trinity resumed SCAC play this weekend, hosting the top two teams in the conference standings. Trinity earned a weekend split, falling 59-69 to Austin College, but defeating Colorado College 60-50 on Sunday. Michael Tobolowsky finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to lead Trinity against Austin College, while Heath Hopson and Gil Melchior came off the bench with nine points each. It marked Austin College’s first SCAC win against the Tigers, as Trinity came into the game with a 6-0 conference record against the ‘Roos. Since 1991-92, Trinity and Austin College met 14 times before Saturday night, with Trinity winning 12 of those games and all seven of the games in San Antonio. In Sunday’s game against Colorado College, Luke Caldarera led Trinity to the win with 16 points and 14 rebounds. He finished with 24 points and 23 rebounds in the two games this weekend. Trinity will travel to Hendrix and Millsaps this weekend, which will be the first SCAC road games of the season for the Tigers. Trinity returns home the following weekend to face the SCAC East Division for the first time this season, hosting Oglethorpe and Sewanee.

For the complete SCAC Men's Hoops Weekly for Week 6, click here.

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