Gents and Ladies Basketball Open up SCAC Play
SHERMAN, Texas - It will be a new season for Centenary basketball to close out the 2016 calendar year when the Maroon and White open up Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play at Austin College.
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LIVE STATS: Gents-'Roos | Ladies-'Roos
The Ladies (3-6) are coming off an 87-64 win against Rust on December 19. After leading by only one after three quarters (56-55), Centenary outscored the Bearcats 31-9 despite the game ending with 1:19 left in the fourth due to Rust foul trouble.
The 31 points tie the most ever in a quarter for the Ladies, matching the 31 points scored in the fourth at Millsaps November 20, a 76-64 loss. The previous high in a quarter was 29 in the fourth quarter at Texas Lutheran, an 89-81 loss on January 23, 2016.
Centenary is 0-4 in SCAC openers.
The Gents (5-5) open up conference play on a three-game winning streak. In the most recent contest, junior Travion Kirkendoll hit his second buzzer-beater of the year as Centenary held on to beat Rust 67-66 on December 19. Kirkendoll scored 16 points, grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds, and came up three assists short of a triple-double.
Senior James Sapp scored 20 points and easily leads the conference in both points (19.4) and rebounds (10.8) per game. He ranks 28th in the country in rebounds per game. With 1,185 career points and 798 rebounds, Sapp ranks 25th and sixth in the Gents all-time annals, respectively.
19 is Lucky
Apparently, junior Travion Kirkendoll likes the number 19.
In two games this season on the date, November 19 and December 19, Kirkendoll has made a buzzer-beater right in front of the Gents bench for the win. In November, it was to even Centenary's record at 1-1 in a 79-76 win against Hendrix at Millsaps. The Maroon and White trailed by two to Rust in December, but Kirkendoll hit his only three of the game for the win to also bring Centenary back to .500 (5-5).
And this season in not even the first time Kirkendoll hit the game-winning shot on the 19th. His freshman season, he accomplished that feat on February 19, 2015, at McMurry when Kirkendoll made a lay-up with one second left. McMurry's last-second desperation shot missed in the 86-85 win.
The past three seasons, Centenary is 3-1 when playing on the 19th. Unfortunately, the Gents do not play on that date the rest of the year.
Getting to the Line
Ranking fourth in free throws attempted and 10th in free throws made in the country last season, sophomore Jasmine Morris is even more adept at getting to the charity stripe this season.
She ranks third in both categories (60 made, 86 attempted). In the last two games alone, she is 23-for-28 (82.1 percent). Morris has scored 20+ points in each of the last two games, a feat she had accomplished only once in the first seven contest, to take the lead in the SCAC in scoring (17.2 points per game).
Next Up
Both the Ladies and Gents will play their final home, non-conference games of the season when Hendrix visits the Gold Dome on January 2. The Gents beat Hendrix, 79-76, on the aforementioned buzzer beater by Kirkendoll, on November 19. The Ladies came back from an 11-point deficit for the 67-65 win against the Warriors with a thrilling final seconds on November 19.
The doubleheader begins with the Ladies game at 4 p.m.
