UD Men's Basketball SCAC Quarterfinals Preview
HOUSTON - The University of Dallas men's basketball team begins the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) tournament on Friday, March 5, against conference opponent St. Thomas University. The Crusaders are winless against the Celts since St. Thomas joined the SCAC in 2019-2020. Earlier this season St. Thomas won the two game series against UD at the Maher Center 80-77 and 101-81.
Dallas comes into the SCAC tournament on a three game winning streak defeating Schreiner University and Colorado College, twice, all on the road. On Feb. 6 UD beat Schreiner 98-87 and last weekend on Feb. 27 and 28, UD won 87-78 and 64-60 against the Tigers.
St. Thomas comes into the tournament splitting each of their last two series. On Feb. 12 and 13 St. Thomas defeated Texas Lutheran University 65-41 and lost 64-55. Last weekend against Centenary College of Louisiana, The Celts won 66-63 and lost 71-69.
Due to Covid-19, the format of the SCAC tournament has been altered. The tournament has been expanded to eight teams instead of six and for the quarterfinal round, the higher seeded team will host the game. UD will travel down to Houston for Friday's game as the 7-seed with St. Thomas awarded the home weekend as the 2-seed.
Game time in Houston will be at 6 p.m. CST. The live stream for the game will be available here: UD-St. Thomas SCAC Quarter Final | Livestats are also available.
Things to note:
UD missed the 2020 SCAC tournament. The last time UD played in the SCAC tournament was in 2019, in which UD as the 5-seed made it all the way to the championship where they lost to TLU 99-95 in double overtime.
After starting the season 0-5, Dallas has won four of its last five games, including a win against the reigning SCAC Tournament champions Centenary.
UD's Jai Love (St. Louis, Mo.) is the highest scoring member of the team averaging 14.5 ppg, which places him as the sixth best scorer in the SCAC this year. Love is also second in the conference in assists with 43.
Letrell Toussaint (Waco, Texas) and Jack Boyle (Silver Springs, Md.) are the first and third best rebounders in the SCAC this year, averaging 9.8 and 8.4 rebounds per game. The duo forwards each had a double-double in a game at Colorado Springs.
St. Thomas is the reigning SCAC regular season champion from the 2019-2020 season. They were ineligible for the 2020 tournament due to their probationary transfer period upon joining the SCAC in 2019.
The last conference tournament St. Thomas participated in was the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) an NAIA affiliate where they won the championship in 2019.
St. Thomas is 3-1 at home this year with their loss coming against top seeded Trinity University in the second game of the conference schedule.
Adam Kanafani and Juan Hood are the eighth and ninth top scorers in the SCAC this year averaging 14.1 and 13.3 ppg. Additionally, Kanafani is the fourth top rebounder in the conference averaging 7.9 per game, and Hood leads the conference in assists with 46.