GEORGETOWN, Texas - Southwestern men's basketball was unable to complete the sweep of games this week, falling to Hardin-Simmons University 65-53 on Thursday afternoon.
Even with a suffocating defense, the Pirates trailed 37-21 at halftime as the Cowboys capitalized off of Southwestern's 15 turnovers, converting them into 14 points. Southwestern scored just eight field goals and HSU 13, but the difference came from the free throw line where the Cowboys had eight more attempts and scored seven more points.
After Chase Kocher's reverse layup, SU cut the Cowboy's lead to 13 and showed new resolve. Southwestern continued to claw their way back in the game but couldn't get the run of stops defensively to make a big push and get under a double-digit deficit. . Hardin-Simmons took advantage of nearly every free throw opportunity, keeping the Pirates at arm's length, going 17-19 from the charity stripe for the game to close out the 65-53 win.
Southwestern shot 34.5% from the field and 26.3% from three point range in the loss, led by Adrian Johnson's 10 points. HSU's Darius Singletary led all scorers with 12 points. SU was outrebounded 40-30 and committed five more turnovers 24-19.
The loss sends the Pirates into the holidays with a 4-6 overall record while HSU improves to 7-2 on the year. Southwestern returns to action on December 29th as they travel to San Antonio to face Dominican University in a neutral-site game at 2 p.m.