SCAC Men's Basketball Recap - Week Six

Posted: Dec 17, 2018

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball continued last week with four league games on the docket highlighted by Southwestern (5-5, 2-0) and Texas Lutheran (4-5, 1-1) opening the conference portion of their schedules.

Southwestern snapped its four-game losing skid and earned a pair of home victories over the weekend, defeating Johnson & Wales (9-3, 2-1), 98-91, on Saturday and then knocked off Colorado College (4-8, 0-3), 72-68, on Sunday. This season marks the second-straight year the Pirates have opened up SCAC play, 2-0. On Saturday, Southwestern used a balanced attack as all five starters were in double figures, led by Andrew Puhl with 18 points, to secure a seven-point win over the Wildcats. Southwestern shot a season high 57.1 percent from the field to hand JWU its first conference loss of the season. On Sunday, Ryan Wheeler poured in 20 points to lead SU as the Pirates have now won their first two home league games for the third time since the 2010-11 season.

TLU opened up SCAC play with a tough 89-81 loss to JWU on Friday night where the Wildcats erased a five-point halftime deficit by scoring 57 points in the second half for the win. Bailey Stephens led all players with 25 points to propel the Wildcats to victory. The Bulldogs responded by picking up a 79-64 win over Colorado College on Saturday. Nathan Josephs led the way for TLU with a season-high 21 points and added five assists. TLU also recorded a season-high 12 steals and knocked down 11 three-point field goals. It marked the sixth time this season the Bulldogs have hit 10 or more shots from beyond the arc where they now hold a 4-2 record when hitting that mark.

In non-conference action, Austin College (4-4, 0-0) got back to .500 on the season after wins over Paul Quinn, 85-82, and Hendrix, 98-89. The 'Roos shot over 50 percent in back-to-back games for the first time this year, including a season-high 57.4 percent (31-for-54) in the win over Hendrix, which also included a year best 28 made free throws. Justice Mercadel was outstanding to lead Austin College in the two victories, averaging 24.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.

Centenary (2-6, 0-0) snapped its six-game losing streak with a 75-69 victory over East Texas Baptist on Saturday. The Gents were led by Ty Prince with a game and season-high 24 points, that included five made three-point field goals.

SCAC action continues this week as Austin College, Centenary, Dallas (1-6), Schreiner (2-5) and Trinity (0-7) all make their league play debuts on Tuesday.

For links to box scores and recaps from all of last week's season-opening action, click below:

This Week's Leaders:

Points/game (24.5): Justice Mercadel, Austin College
Rebounds/game (10.0): Andrew Puhl, Southwestern
Assists/game (6.0): Justice Mercadel, Austin College
Steals/game (3.0): Sebastian Andrade, Texas Lutheran; Kile Mingo, Centenary
Blocks/game (2.0): Luke Brumbaugh, Austin College; Kaharri Carter, Centenary
*FG percentage (88.9): Luke Brumbaugh, Austin College (8-9)
+FT percentage (100.0): Jacob Kouremetis, Texas Lutheran (5-5), Jontrell Herman, Johnson & Wales (Denver) (17-17)
#3FG percentage (77.8): Williams Kelsey, Johnson & Wales (Denver) (7-9)

*minimum of 4 FGs made per game
+minimum of 2.5 FTs made per game
#minimum of 1.5 3FGs made per game

This Week's Results:

Date	Away		Home		Status	Links
December
Tue. 11	Paul Quinn	82	Austin College	85	Final	Recap Box Score Video
Fri. 14	JWU (Denver) *	89	Texas Lutheran	81	Final	Recap Box Score Video
Sat. 15	JWU (Denver) *	91	Southwestern (Tex.)	98	Final	Recap Recap Box Score
	East Tex. Baptist	69	Centenary (La.)	75	Final	Recap Box Score Photos Video
	Colorado College *	64	Texas Lutheran	79	Final	Recap Box Score
	Hendrix	89	Austin College	98	Final	Recap Box Score Video
Sun. 16	Colorado College *	68	Southwestern (Tex.)	72	Final	Recap Box Score