SUWANEE, Ga. - Entering the final week of the regular season there are still a total of three berths in the SCAC tournament remaining between the Eastern and Western Divisions. One spot remains in the East while two spots remain in the West, where four teams are still alive for the final two West berths.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College dropped a pair of games last week at Southwestern and Trinity, bringing the team to 10-12 overall and 6-8 in SCAC play on the year. Against Southwestern, the team shot just 26.7% in the first half as they fell in a 10 point hole and were unable to overcome that deficit, falling 69-63 in Georgetown. Jordan Hancock, Scott Straley and Walter Phillips each scored 15 points in the loss while Josh Saunders grabbed 10 boards to go along with eight points. Against Trinity, the ‘Roos once again found themselves faced with a 10 point halftime deficit that they were unable to come back from, falling 62-52 in San Antonio. Straley again scored 15 to lead the ‘Roos and added six boards while Saunders added 10 points and Phillips chipped in with nine points and eight rebounds. Austin College closes out the SCAC regular season this weekend with home games against Millsaps and Hendrix.
 
Birmingham-Southern struggled this week, dropping two road games: a non-conference game against Huntingdon on Wednesday, 73-70, and a conference game against Rhodes on Saturday, 61-50. The Panthers managed a 24-2 run in the second half against Huntingdon to take the lead, but weren’t able to hang on. Against Rhodes, BSC struggled offensively, with leading scorer Jasen Jonus going 0-of-6 from the field. The Panthers are at home this weekend to wrap up the season, hosting DePauw, Friday night, and Centre, Sunday, for a chance to win the SCAC East Division title.
   
No. 23 Centre ran its record to 17-4 overall and 12-2 in the SCAC with a pair of SCAC home wins over Sewanee and Oglethorpe. The Colonels opened the weekend with a 70-35 win over Sewanee marking the 11th straight win over the Tigers. Centre then avenged a loss to the Stormy Petrels earlier in the season with a 67-52 win Sunday. Over the weekend, senior Alex Lloyd became the school’s all-time career leader in blocked shots and now sits at 137 in his four years, which ranks him sixth in SCAC history. With one more win, the Colonels will have won 18 or more games in a season for the ninth straight season. Centre will wrap up the regular season this week with road contests against Rhodes and Birmingham-Southern.

Colorado College’s skid reached a season-long five games after the Tigers lost a pair of road contests last weekend in Texas. CC couldn’t overcome foul trouble during Friday’s 66-55 loss at Trinity on Friday. Despite playing most of the second half without All-America candidate Nick Rose, the Tigers whittled a 15-point deficit with 14:54 remaining to five points on two occasions. Nick Foley led the Tigers with a season-high 20 points, making four of six attempts from three-point range to match his personal best. During Sunday’s 66-62 loss at Southwestern, Colorado College coughed up a six-point lead during the final 3:47. The Tigers made only 10 of 35 field-goal attempts during the opening 20 minutes and trailed by 13 points with 6:21 remaining. With a game-high 29 points, Rose became the sixth player in program history to reach the 1,400 point mark. Brady Ohlsen recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and a season-high 16 rebounds. Colorado College plays host to Hendrix College and Millsaps College on Friday and Sunday, respectively. 

Hendrix wrapped up its final weekend at home with a pair of wins. The Warriors cruised to a 67-46 win over University of Dallas on Tuesday and then took down Millsaps, 75-63, on Senior Day Saturday. Hendrix moves into a tie with Millsaps for the final SCAC Tournament seed out of the Western Division. The Warriors will need to win one more than Millsaps on the road next weekend to clinch a spot in this year’s postseason classic. Millsaps owns the tie-breaker, so two wins by the Majors would put the Warriors out of the tournament. Both teams travel to Colorado College and Austin College. Hendrix will play Colorado on Feb. 18 and then Austin on Feb. 20. Hendrix shot a blistering 60.7 percent and outscored University of Dallas 24-10 in the paint during the second half to earn the season-series sweep on Tuesday night. Junior Ammon Martin led Hendrix with 20 points and four 3-pointers to a win over Millsaps on Saturday afternoon.

Millsaps split their games this week, but gave up the conference win at Hendrix on Saturday. The Warriors upended the Majors 75-63 in Conway. The Majors got a non-conference win on Tuesday night, 50-41, over Covenant College. MC trailed at the half to the Eagles, but put together a 9-2 run from the 13:13 mark to retake the lead 36-35 with 9:36 remaining. They did not trail again. Saturday the second half comeback was not to be after trailing by one at the break. Taylor Meades hit a layup to open the second half to give Millsaps the lead 30-29, but then the Warriors began to surge. They went on a quick 5-0 run to go up 36-30 with 17:10 left and got that lead up to ten, 46-36 by 13:31. The Majors couldn't answer quickly enough and the Hendrix lead ballooned to 22, 65-43, with 5:48 left to play. It took the rest of the remaining time to get the game back to the final 12-point margin, 75-63. The Majors will end the regular season on the road this weekend as they travel over to Austin College on Friday before wrapping up at Colorado College on Sunday.

Oglethorpe lost a pair of games this past weekend at DePauw (L, 74-70) and Centre (L, 67-52). On Friday, the Petrels final conference game in Greencastle, Ind. proved a fitting one as the locale of a house of horrors claimed another Petrel defeat on the strength of the Tigers drilling 14 of 29 shots from beyond the arc. Todd Ward scored 29 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the loss. Oglethorpe connected on 56% from the field (30 of 54) and 50% from three (6 of 12) on the night. On Sunday, the Petrels trimmed a 10 point Colonel lead down to five with 5:02 remaining but did not make a field goal the rest of the game en route to the loss. The Petrels cut the deficit to 5 on two separate occasions in the second half but would get no closer. The Petrels are now 13-11 on the season and 9-6 in SCAC play. OU travels to Sewanee Saturday.
  
Rhodes won its only game this week in upset fashion against the Birmingham-Southern Panthers. The Lynx defense stifled the Panthers and held them to 50 points on 33.3% shooting for the game. Sophomore Andrew Galow led the Lynx offensively with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists, including icing the game at the free throw line (12 for 15). Along with Galow, freshman Johnny Dunavant hit two big three point field goals late in the second half to keep BSC at arms length. Dunavant finished with 14 points, going 3 for 4 from distance. The win gives the Lynx three wins in their last four games, the only loss being on the road in overtime. Rhodes will host Centre and DePauw this coming weekend in hopes to putting the finishing touches on making the conference tournament.  
 
Sewanee was on the road for the final time this season, visiting both Centre and DePauw in SCAC clashes. The Tigers found themselves on the losing end of both contests, dropping a 70-35 decision to the Colonels Friday evening and falling 84-70 to DePauw on Sunday. Centre used large runs in the first and second half to put Sewanee away, as the Tigers struggled to find their touch all night long. Sewanee was led by Lewis Affronti, who had 13 points. Valentino Bryant followed with 12 points and seven rebounds. Against DePauw, Bryant had a huge day for Sewanee, leading the Tigers with 25 points and seven rebounds. The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday when they play host to Free Will Baptist College at 7 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season at home against Oglethorpe on Saturday.  
 
Southwestern swept its final home weekend, snapping a nine game losing streak, to send three seniors, Nick Caputo, Robbie Hanley, Jon Brown, out in style on senior day. On Friday night Southwestern shot 52.1% from the floor and held the 'Roos to just 37.7% in the 69-63 win. Robbie Hanley's three pointer with just over a minute left sealed the win for SU. Sunday afternoon Southwestern found themselves trailing by six with less than four minutes remaining but closed out the game on a 12-2 run to earn the 66-62 victory. Hanley once again had the big play at the end of the game, snagging an offensive rebound off a missed free throw. With the win Southwestern improves to 6-18 on the year and 4-11 in the SCAC. They remain in contention for the final playoff spot but need to defeat Trinity in San Antonio on Friday night at 8pm and have Austin College and Colorado College defeat Hendrix and Millsaps to make the leap.
  
Trinity swept its second straight weekend of conference play, taking over first place in the SCAC West Division in the process. The Tigers defeated both Colorado College and Austin College by 10 points over the weekend, and have now won 10 of their last 13 games. Luke Caldarera led the team in scoring in both games, and passed 1,300 career points in the process. He is 10th all-time at Trinity in scoring. He also recorded his 700th career rebound over the weekend. Trinity will host Southwestern and the University of Dallas in the final two games of the regular season this weekend. The Tigers lost 53-52 at Southwestern earlier this season.

For the complete SCAC Men's Hoops Weekly for Week 12, click here.