By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
After a split of Tuesday night’s Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference basketball doubleheader in the Gold Dome, there’s more competition along Kings Highway this weekend in four sports.
Recent results point to the Gents’ basketball fortunes on the upswing. With two more home games this weekend against teams both 1-3 in SCAC play, opportunity knocks for Centenary to strengthen its grip on second in the SCAC Gold Division. Only Trinity, 4-0 in conference play, has a better league record – in either division – than the Gents.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: The Gents (5-8, 3-1 SCAC) won their second game in a row and improved to 4-5 at home with an 81-73 victory over Austin College on Tuesday evening at the Gold Dome. Centenary led 38-29 at halftime and shot 42.9 percent overall for the game and made an impressive 20-26 at the free throw line to help seal the win over the ‘Roos (6-7, 1-3 SCAC).
Centenary remains home this weekend for a pair of league contests as the Maroon and White face Southwestern on Friday night at 7:30 and Texas Lutheran on Sunday afternoon at 2. Admission is free to all Gents’ home games this season.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: The Ladies (2-10, 1-3 SCAC) fell 75-48 at home on Tuesday evening to Austin College (7-5, 3-1 SCAC) in a league contest inside the Gold Dome. Centenary fell behind 41-20 at halftime as the ‘Roos cruised to the road victory.
The Ladies welcome both Southwestern and Texas Lutheran to town this weekend, facing Southwestern on Friday at 5:30 and then TLU on Sunday at noon.
Freshman forward Shyanne Phillips was named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week for the week of January 12, it was announced Tuesday by D3hoops.com.
Phillips exploded for a career-high 26 points to lead all scorers in the Ladies’ 74-61 win over Dallas at home on Sunday and added a game-high 19 rebounds for an impressive double-double. Her 19 rebounds are tied for the most by a SCAC player in a game this season and tied for the seventh-most in a single game in Ladies’ program history. She was 11-17 from the floor and 4-4 at the free-throw line in 30 minutes with a blocked shot and a steal.
Phillips entered Sunday’s action as the conference’s third-leading rebounder, tied for fifth in free throw aim, and ranked in the top 20 in scoring. She has now reached double figures six times this season and has recorded four double-doubles.
The Team of the Week is D3hoops.com’s weekly honor roll, in its 28th season of recognizing the top performance at each of the five positions from the previous week. Players are selected from nominations from their school’s sports information directors.
BUSY WEEKEND: No shortage of quality Division III sports to enjoy over the long holiday weekend on the Centenary campus as five teams will be action over four days.
Along with the men’s and women’s basketball teams hosting conference doubleheaders on Friday night and Sunday, the men’s and women’s swimming teams face Millsaps College on Friday at 4 and Austin College on Saturday at 1.
On Martin Luther King Day, the Ladies’ gymnastics team is home on Monday at 1 for a tri-meet against Southeast Missouri State and Westchester in the Gold Dome.
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu