BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Birmingham-Southern men's basketball team dropped the final game of the 2018 Black Tie Classic on Saturday evening, falling to the Pfeiffer University Falcons 97-87.
Freshman guard Troy Stephens (Atlanta, Ga./St. Pius X Catholic HS) led the Panthers in the loss with 22 points, including four three-pointers. He was 8-of-13 from the field.
Senior point guard Zachary Allison (Pelham, Ala./Wallace State CC) led BSC in assists with seven while sophomore Ben Spence (Memphis, Tenn./Christian Brothers HS) led the team in rebounds with 10. Spence earned his third double-double of the season with his 10 rebounds and 12 points.
After going down 15-0 to start the game, Birmingham-Southern stormed back to take the lead for the first time, 23-22, with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half.
BSC and Pfeiffer battled into halftime with the Falcons holding a 45-39 lead over the Panthers at the break.
Just like the first half, however, Pfeiffer got off to another good start and held a 13-point lead over BSC with 11 minutes to play. The Panthers would end up cutting the deficit to four points as late as 1:10 remaining but never got any closer as Pfeiffer would hold their lead in the end and hand BSC the 97-87 loss.
A bad shooting night was ultimately BSC's downfall. The Panthers were 43.3 percent (29-67) from the field, 35 percent (14-40) from three and 53.6 percent (15-28) from the free throw line.
With the loss, Birmingham-Southern drops to 6-3 on the season. The Panthers next game will be at Huntingdon on Thursday, Dec. 20.