Crusaders hold off Colorado College in Quarterfinals of SCAC Tournament

IRVING, Texas – For the first time since joining the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) four years ago, the University of Dallas men's basketball team (18-8) prevailed in a quarterfinal game and advanced to its first semifinal after Friday's 50-47 win over Colorado College (13-13).

Dallas avenged an 89-81 first round setback last season to the Tigers, triumphing on its home floor. The victory moved the Crusaders to a tie with a historic program record, 18 victories. UD has also now won 10 out of 12 times in the friendly confines.

The Maher Athletic Center was electrifying tonight and helping lift the Navy and White was sophomore Michael Sarrat (Colleyville, Texas) by tying a season-high 21 points. The guard notched 12 in the second stanza and helped rally his squad, which trailed by three at halftime.

UD's leading three-point scorer would finish one field goal shy of matching a season-best, with three coming from long range. Also notching double figures for the Crusaders was senior Kym Malone (Richardson, Texas) with 10 points. The point guard added five rebounds and four assists, which increased his league-high on the campaign to 120.

Fellow teammate Aaron Wyatt (Frisco, Texas) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, while senior Mark Promberger (Phoenix, Ariz.) and sophomore Lorenzo Gonzalez (San Antonio, Texas) contributed six and five, respectively.

After the Crusaders pounced on CC for seven-straight points to begin just over 2 and a half minutes from first tip, the Tigers roared back with seven unanswered of their own. From there it was a back-and-forth battle with neither squad carrying consistent momentum.

Down one in the second half with 16:14 remaining, Dallas went on a 7-0 run to help bolster an edge that would never be relinquished the rest of the way. The Navy and White's largest lead was six after freshman Emmanuel Calton (Keller, Texas) nailed a trey with 2:50 in the game.

Calton's trifecta occurred after he broke through the feisty Black and Gold defense to notch five of his seven points on consecutive possessions.

Colorado College had opportunities in the final 14 seconds, but were off the mark on a pair of three-pointers as the No.4-seeded Crusaders survived a nail-biter.

Both teams struggled to score a lot, as UD shot 38.8 percent from the field. The squad hit a 46.2-clip from downtown, and the Tigers clinched a 32.7 percent clip and 26.3 percent from beyond the arc. Dallas won the battle on the boards 35-32.

Leading CC offensively was Luke Winfield with 11, while the second-highest league scorer, Chris Lesnansky, was limited to 10. Russell Clark grabbed seven rebounds.

UP NEXT

Dallas moves to the SCAC Semifinal contest on Saturday at 5 p.m. versus the Top-Seeded Texas Lutheran University. The Bulldogs earned co-champion honors on the regular season title along with Centenary College of Louisiana. TLU earned the No.1-Seed after prevailing in a set of tiebreaker rules. The teams split 1-1 on the season with the host venue school prevailing in each.