Austin College Men Fall Short Against Pirates

SHERMAN, Texas - The Austin College men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Friday evening, falling 81-69 to the visiting Southwestern Pirates in Hughey Gym. The 'Roos are now 2-1 overall on the year.

Southwestern out-rebounded Austin College 57-34 in the game and outscored the 'Roos 29-to-11 from the free throw line, including making 27-of-33 attempts from the stripe in the second half to put Austin College away. Austin College came out of the gates ice cold in the opening half, managing just nine points in the game's first 11 minutes to fall behind 26-9. The 'Roos shot just 14% from the field during that stretch before Tristan Dick's three pointer with 8:42 on the clock sparked a 17-2 run to pull Austin College to within two points at 28-26 with 2:10 left before halftime.

The Pirates would counter with five straight points to push the margin to 33-26 before a triple from Chanston Goodman got it back down to a four point game, and Southwestern would head into the locker room leading 35-29. 

Southwestern's lead quickly grew to 10 just over a minute into the second half, and the Pirates would go on top 51-37 with 14:24 left to play. The 'Roos were unable to get the margin back down into single digits until a Michael Holland basket cut it to 61-52 with 6:55 left, but an 8-2 run by Southwestern pushed it back to a 15 point margin with 4:23 on the clock and Austin College was unable to close the gap in the game's final minutes.

Holland led all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-22 shooting, adding six rebounds and five assists. Dick scored 12 points as the only other 'Roo to reach double figures, while Kam Hogan and Joshua Joe each scored nine points. Hogan also handed out a game-best seven assists in the loss.

Kyle Poerschke led Southwestern with 18 points and added eight rebounds, while Preston Hannah scored 14. Trenton Garrett added 12 points and 11 boards, and Chris Smith chipped in 10 points for the Pirates.

Austin College and Southwestern will play again tomorrow in Hughey Gym with game time set for 4:00 p.m.