GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - Southwestern Men's Basketball finished the regular season with a home loss to Trinity University, 90-65. The Pirates finish the season 12-13 overall and 6-8 in the SAA. Southwestern held stride for stride with Trinity in the first ten minutes before the Tigers ended the half on a 25-8 run that the Pirates could not overcome.
The Pirates clinched the fifth seed in next week's six-team tournament hosted by Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia. Trinity and Rhodes College are the top two seeds with first round byes. Centre College, Millsaps College, Sewanee, and Southwestern tied at 6-8. The league's tie breakers led to Millsaps (fourth seed), taking on Southwestern (fifth seed) at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday night.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
- The Pirates started the same starting squad of senior Shobby Enakpene, senior Luke Hatcher, junior Luke Mills, junior Zach Gomez, and Aedan Lewis.
- Lewis threw down an incredible lob dunk to help take an early 14-12 lead.
- Enakpene and Mills kept the Pirates tied with 12 minutes remaining. Trinity dug in defensively and caught fire beyond the arc as Pirates trailed 44-25 at half.
- Gomez drained two triples in the second half before the Tigers extended the deficit to 25.
- The Pirates emptied the bench and rested their starters in the second half in the loss.
GAME NOTES
- Reaching 12 regular season wins this year marked the first since 2019-20. The Pirates last conference tournament appearance was in 2022-23.
- Southwestern has not won a conference tournament game since 2015-16.
- Gomez led the Pirates in scoring with nine points.
- Enakpene and Lewis will make strong cases for SAA All-Conferece as they both averaged 17.6 PPG in league play.
UP NEXT
Southwestern travels to Georgia on Tuesday to prepare for the SAA tournament quarterfinal matchup with Millsaps at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday night.
