BOX SCORE
CONWAY, Ark. -- Sewanee opened the 2009 SCAC Men's Basketball Championships against \#1 seed in the West Trinity and nearly upset the favorite. Trinity led 19-18 at the half and eventually got the 53-52 win in overtime. The game was tied at 45 at the end of regulation and Trinity edged out Sewanee 8-7 in the overtime period. Sewanee led 52-48 with 16 seconds left, but a Jonathan Lewis trey and a layup by BJ Moon with one second left gave Trinity the edge.
Ben Pursell (Franklin, Tenn., BGA) and
Bradley Pierson (Rome, Ga., Darlington) teamed up for 33 of Sewanee's 52 points with Pursell logging a team high 19.
Casey Berry (Naples, Fla., Community School) had eight points, four steals and three assists. In the last game of their career, Sewanee's seniors totaled 44 of the 52 Tiger points. Luke Caldarera led Trinity with 12 points.
Sewanee was 38.5% good from the field for the game but was 60% accurate in the extra period. Trinity made 40% of its field goals. Trinity out-rebounded Sewanee 39-30 and the Tigers had the edge in free throws with a 55% average, compared to just 41% for Trinity.
"I couldn't be more proud of our seniors in how they shouldered our team down the stretch of the season and in today's game," added Sewanee coach
Bubba Smith. "They can walk away from today's performance proud of how they represented Sewanee, both on and off the court. We wanted to walk away from this season playing our best basketball, and today Trinity got our best. Hopefully today's performance will be a great motivation for our young guys and a building block for the future of Sewanee basketball."
Sewanee finishes the 2008-09 season at 7-19. Trinity will go on to play the winner of the DePauw/Southwestern game tomorrow afternoon.
