SUWANEE, Ga. - The seeds are set for the 10th annual Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) men's basketball tournament. Tournament host Birmingham-Southern College and Trinity University earned the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Divisions respectively.
The remaining Eastern Division seeds are #2 Rhodes College, #3 Centre College and #4 Sewanee: University of the South.
The Western Division remaining seeds are #2 Austin College, #3 Colorado College and #4 University of Dallas.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin College split its final two regular
season games of the year over the weekend, topping Southwestern
83-73 before falling 72-58 to Trinity. The ‘Roos finish the
regular season with an overall record of 15-10 and will be the
number two seed out of the West Division in the SCAC Tournament.
Against Southwestern, the ‘Roos trailed at halftime but
outscored the Pirates 45-26 after the break to earn the win with
Walter Phillips posting a double-double with 19 points and 10
boards. Ransom Okpala added 18 points and six assists in the win.
Against Trinity the ‘Roos shot nearly 50% from the field but
were unable to get past the Tigers. Okpala led the team with 13
points and Josh Saunders added 11 points and nine rebounds in the
loss. The ‘Roos face Centre College in the first round of the
SCAC Tournament this week.
No. 9 Birmingham-Southern added two more wins this
week, defeating Berry on the road, Tuesday, and then Oglethorpe at
home on Saturday, ending the regular season on a 17-game winning
streak and a 42-game home win streak. Junior Zac Richards led the
Panthers in both games, with 18 points and 13 rebounds against
Berry and 25 points against Oglethorpe. Junior Blaise White also
recorded 10 assists against OU. The Panthers will host the 2012
SCAC Championship this weekend, playing as the top seed in the East
in their first-ever NCAA Division III postseason appearance. BSC
faces No. 4 West seed Dallas on Friday at 1 p.m. in Bill Battle
Coliseum.
Centre closed out the regular season by splitting
their final home stand. Against Millsaps on Friday, the Colonels
got a balanced scoring attack with five players scoring nine or
more points. Josh Karsner led all scorers with 16 on 6-8 shooting
while Collin Lopez and Greg Ross scored 11 and 10, respectively.
Centre hit 12 three-pointers for the game and out-rebounded the
Majors by 18. Centre led by 14 at the half and scored the first 17
points of the second half en route to the 81-44 victory. Against
Rhodes on Sunday, Centre fell behind early and stayed that way for
most of the game, as their frantic second half effort fell short.
The Colonels recorded a season high 15 steals against the Lynx, one
shy of the school record, but Rhodes countered by hitting 52.6%
from the field, including a remarkable 13-24 from long distance as
they won 83-74. Jeff Mullaney led Centre with 17 points. Greg Ross
scored 16 and Donovan Whiteside scored 13.
Colorado College closed out its regular season with a
100-74 victory over Hendrix. Chris Lesnansky paced the Tigers with
game-high 22 points, 17 of which came in the first half. Ryan Milne
recorded his first double-double, scoring 20 points and dishing out
a career-high 13 assists. CC led by as many as 36 points during the
second half. Freshman forward Joe Howard made four of six shots
from the floor and finished with a season-high eight points.
Freshman forward Davis Tutt scored the Tigers' season-high 100th
point on a 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play, giving Colorado
College its largest margin of victory this season. The Tigers began
the week with an 84-75 non-conference victory over Johnson &
Wales University. Milne went 6-for-12 from behind the arc en route
to a 31-point performance.
Despite going 0-2 on the week in a pair of SCAC home games,
Dallas (7-18, 5-11 SCAC) secured the No. 4 seed in
the West Division and will play host school No. 1
Birmingham-Southern at 1 p.m. on Friday. Trailing 35-25 at
halftime, Dallas fell to Trinity, 74-59. Meanwhile, entering
double-figure scoring for the Crusaders were Tanner Bruffey (12
points), Aaron Wyatt (10 points) and Braeton Hightower (10 points).
Dallas was back on the hardwood on Saturday, hosting Southwestern.
Both teams looked to end their respective regular season on a high
note. Sinking 8-of-14 from the free-throw line in the first half,
Dallas boasted a 26-20 advantage at the break. Southwestern turned
it up from the field in the second half, shooting 58.6 percent
(17-of-29) in a 64-57 victory. Wyatt's 13 points led the way for
Dallas, while Kym Malone and Joe Stephens each totaled 10
points.
Hendrix won its final home game of the season
by topping Rust 73-71 in non-conference play on Wednesday. Senior
Nick Heathscott scored a career-high 37 points, just six points off
the school record on 13-of-17 shooting from the field and 10-of-13
at the free throw line. Senior guard Ammon Martin scored 10 points,
with seven rebounds and tied his career-high with seven assists.
Sophomore forward Colton Primm scored nine points. The
Warriors’ season ended with a 100-74 loss at Colorado College
on Saturday. Heathscott scored 15 points and Primm had 14. Senior
Chris Goodman netted nine points and fellow senior Josh Graham had
seven points and five boards. Freshmen guards Nathan McCubbin and
Mason Millsap also added seven points each.
Millsaps finished its season on Sunday afternoon as they
took two losses to Centre and Sewanee to end the year. The Majors
finished the season 8-16 and 3-13 in the SCAC. The team struggled
on the road on Friday evening as they fell to the Centre Colonels,
81-44. The Majors could not get anything going offensively,
especially in the second half. Freshman Sterling Thomas led the way
for Millsaps with 12 points while junior Taylor Meades and
sophomore Kyle Kinnear added 10 points each. The following day, the
Majors fell to a motivated Sewanee team who was looking for a win
to make the SCAC Tournament. Junior Nick Cortese led Millsaps off
the bench with 15 points while fellow junior Taylor Meades added
10.
Oglethorpe lost its final contest of the season at
Birmingham-Southern (L, 92-80) on Saturday night and, with Sewanee
holding the fourth place tiebreaker in the SCAC East, missed the
postseason tournament for the first time in nine years. The No. 8
ranked Panthers made 56% of their shots and drilled 11 treys to
keep a game Petrel squad at bay on Saturday night. Oglethorpe
captured an early 4-3 advantage following a lay-up from Andrew
Steioff but that lead would only last 15 seconds after Zac Richards
scored for Southern on the following trip down the floor. BSC
eventually extended the lead all the way up to 21 points as they
hit shot after shot from the perimeter. The Petrels finish the
regular season 11-14 overall and 6-10 in SCAC play.
Rhodes swept a pair of road contests at Sewanee and Centre
to clinch the #2 seed in the East in the SCAC tournament. Friday,
the Lynx went into Sewanee and got everything the Tigers had. A
quick start saw the Lynx get out to a ten point lead, but Sewanee
fought back and the Rhodes needed an extra period to put away the
Tigers. In overtime, Junior Andrew Galow took the ball coast to
coast with 13.3 seconds remaining and banked in a running five
footer to give the Lynx a 61-60 victory. The game-winner marked
Galow’s 1,000th career point. Galow paced the Lynx with
a game-high 27 points and 6 rebounds, while Sophomore Johnny
Dunavant chipped in with 14 points. On Saturday, Rhodes knocked off
previously undefeated-at-home Centre and grabbed the #2 seed in the
East. Stretching the lead out to as many as 21 points in the second
half, the Lynx defeated Centre 83 to 74.
Sewanee went 1-1 on the week in SCAC action as the
Tigers earned their first SCAC tournament appearance since 2009.
Sewanee dropped a tightly contested game with conference rival
Rhodes, 61-60 in overtime. In that game the Tigers were led by
Brett Bouldin’s 16 points and Robert Veal’s six
rebounds. Sewanee then beat Millsaps at home, 79-54. Coupled with
Oglethorpe’s loss to Birmingham-Southern during the weekend,
the Tigers earned the tie-breaker for the #4 East seed. Against the
Majors, Trent Williams led all Sewanee scorers with 16 points while
Tyler Brown’s seven rebounds were a team-high. The Tigers
open up SCAC postseason play on Friday at 6 p.m. CT against the
West’s top seed, Trinity at Birmingham-Southern. In its last
SCAC tournament appearance, Sewanee dropped a heartbreaker to
Trinity in the first round, 53-52 in overtime. Trinity’s B.J.
Moon scored the game-winning basket on a coast-to-coast layup as
time expired.
Needing to win both games to get a shot at the SCAC Conference
Tournament Southwestern hit the road to face
Austin College and the University of Dallas this weekend to close
regular season action. Southwestern took a nine point lead into
halftime, but two big runs in the second half by Austin College
dashed the Pirates' hopes of making the postseason as they defeated
SU 83-73 on Friday night. Saturday night Southwestern closed out
their season on a high note, defeating the University of Dallas
64-57. SU took control of the game with 13 minutes to go in the
second half and never looked lost the lead. The Pirates end the
season at 4-21 on the year and 4-12 in the SCAC.
Trinity clinched the West Division’s top seed with a
2-0 finish to the regular season last weekend, defeating both
Dallas and Austin on the road. The Tigers opened the weekend with a
74-59 win over Dallas, but it was Saturday’s game at Austin
that meant the most to the conference standings. Trinity used an
18-0 run in the second half to pull away in a close game, clinching
the #1 West seed for next weekend’s SCAC Tournament. Trinity
earned a regular season series sweep of both teams with the win,
having beaten Dallas 87-69 and Austin 54-53 in San Antonio earlier
this year. With the weekend results, Trinity has extended its
winning streak to eight games, which is the longest streak since a
15-game win streak in the 2008-09 season. Trinity will open the
SCAC Tournament against Sewanee on Friday at 6 p.m.
Birmingham-Southern will be the tournament hosts. Trinity
lost 61-58 on the road against Sewanee earlier this season. Trinity
holds a 15-6 record at the SCAC Tournament, having won three SCAC
Championships. Against Sewanee, Trinity is 3-0 in tournament play,
with the last meeting coming in the first round of the 2009
tournament.
For the complete SCAC Men's Hoops Weekly for Week
13, click here.
