Box Score
The Sewanee men's basketball team faced off with the Panthers of Birmingham-Southern College tonight in their first game in nearly two weeks. Sophomore Trent Williams and freshman Anvil Nelson led the Tigers with 12 points apiece, but BSC came out on top, dropping Sewanee 85-61 in the SCAC clash. The loss extended the Tiger skid to four, giving them a 4-5 overall record and an 0-2 conference record. Birmingham-Southern moves to 8-1 on the year and 2-1 in the SCAC.
Nelson put the visiting Tigers on the board first, when he nailed a jumper to put Sewanee ahead 2-0. BSC's Jasen Jonus responded with a 3-pointer to put the Panthers up 2-3 before freshman Valentino Bryant knocked down a trey to give Sewanee the lead again, 5-3. The Panthers got another basket to even things at 5-5 followed by a free throw by Patrick Price but Bryant nailed a second 3-pointer to put the Tigers ahead 8-6.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, it would be the last time they would see the lead all night. The Panthers went on a 10-3 run to take a 16-11 lead with 11 minutes left in the first half. Williams, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half, scored five straight points for Sewanee as the Tigers evened things up at 16-all. The two squads traded baskets for the next six minutes and were tied at 23 before BSC went on a 10-1 run to take a 33-24 lead with three and a half minutes remaining in the stanza.
Sewanee got five more points from Williams and baskets from Nelson and Bryant to close out the first period but headed into the locker room trailing 40-33.
The Panthers came out firing in the second half, going up by as many as 16 just three minutes in. Sewanee cut the lead to nine at the 12:29 mark before BSC took a 67-46 lead four and a half minutes later. A 12-0 Panther lead was finally stopped when sophomore Lewis Affronti hit a jumper to stop the Tiger dry spell. The hosts pushed their lead to as many as 26, 85-59, with less than 40 seconds left to play but Sewanee's Sam Martin got a lay up in the final seconds to make the final score 85-61.
Williams and Nelson led the Tigers with 12 points apiece, while BSC's Kevin Kegarise led all scorers with 16. Bryant added 11 for Sewanee and Brett Bouldin poured in nine points on 3 of 3 shooting from the 3-point line. Nelson and Williams also led the Tigers with five rebounds apiece. Mark Messenger paced the Panthers with four boards.
As a team, Sewanee shot nearly 49% from the field, including a 35.3% clip from 3-point land and 73.3% from the free throw line. BSC bettered the Tigers in every category though, shooting 60.4% from the field, 44.4% from the 3-point line, and 76.5% from the charity stripe. The Panthers also held the edge in rebounding, 31-18, and only turned the ball over six times to the Tigers 11 giveaways.
Sewanee heads to Rhodes College for a Sunday SCAC clash in Memphis. The Lynx are 3-6 overall and 0-2 in the conference after dropping an 81-74 decision to the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels tonight. The Tigers lost two decisions to Rhodes last season, including a 67-42 loss on New Year's Day 2010 and a 60-44 defeat in Memphis in February.
