DANVILLE, Ky.—The Birmingham-Southern men's basketball team picked up its 10th straight victory Friday evening, defeating Centre College on the road, 66-61, to move to 9-0 in the Southern Athletic Association.

The Panthers moved to 14-6 overall and remained unbeaten in conference play at 9-0 to lead the standings. The Colonels fell to 12-8 overall and 4-5 in the SAA.

BSC raced out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and would never trail, going up by as much as 15, 32-17, at the 3:56 mark of the first half. Centre would not stay down, though, and used an 8-0 run after that to cut it back to single digits at 32-25 with 1:16 left in the half. Two straight baskets by BSC before the break put the Panthers up 36-25.

The Panthers scored eight straight points to open the second half, fueled by a three-pointer from junior Evan Lewis just 10 seconds in, and BSC hit its largest lead of the game, 44-25, at the 17:46 mark. The Colonels chipped away at the lead after that, though, cutting it back to five, 57-52, with 4:16 left to play. The teams traded baskets down the stretch, and the Panthers held on to win 66-61.

Senior Alex Avery led BSC with 14 points on 5-9 shooting as well as a game-high 14 rebounds, eight assists, and three steals. Senior Ross Welch added 11 points.

BSC stays on the road this weekend to face Sewanee this Sunday at 3 p.m.