Central, SC - The Southern Wesleyan University Warriors were defeated by the Lees-McRae College Bobcats on Saturday Evening. 

The Warriors were led in scoring by Eric Hackett, who put up a career-high 26 points on 9-14 field goal shooting and 5-7 3-point field goal shooting. Che Smith and Christopher Osobaye were equal at 5 rebounds, which was a team-high. RJ Bell led SWU with 6 assists and 3 steals to go with his 16 points. As a team, the Warriors shot 24-60 (40.0%) from the field, 11-15 (44.0%) from three, and 23-33 (69.7%) from the free-throw line. 



Game Vitals:

Final: Southern Wesleyan University 82, Lees-McRae College 110

Records: Southern Wesleyan University 2-6, Lees-McRae College 2-5



How It Happened:

Che Smith, RJ Bell, Marcus Long, Christopher Osobaye, and Aaron Tims were the first five on the floor versus the Bobcats today. Lees-McRae opened the game with a three on their first possession of the game and Long, who is coming off a career-high 22 Points, connected on a pair of free-throws to get Southern Wesleyan started shortly after. After a rough stretch of turnovers, the Warriors took their first lead of the game at 4-3 with 17:19 to play thanks to a field goal from Osobaye. A couple of minutes later, SWU went on a 7-0 run which included back-to-back buckets from Bell to grow their lead. Eric Hackett burst off the bench with 8 points in a span that lasted just less than 2:00 at the mid-point of the first half. Hackett and Bell were the two major contributors from an offensive perspective in the first half, as Hackett knocked down 3 of his 4 attempts from the field and Bell converted on 5 of his 6 shots from the charity stripe. Osoabye had an emphatic block at the end of the period, keeping the Lees-McRae lead at just 3 as the two teams split for the locker room. 

In the second half, Coach Stites went to a lineup that featured more Guards, adding Hackett into the game alongside Smith and Bell. This adjustment worked extremely well to start as Hackett hit threes on back-to-back possessions, both assisted by Bell, to put SWU up 1. Tims and Osobaye each scored early in the second half as well, but Lees-McRae would quickly grab control of the game with a 19-5 run over a 3:30 stretch. That run was ended by a three from Reco Hallmon - a much-improved perimeter shooter so far this season. However, after that bucket, the Warriors went another 4:00 without scoring a field goal before Hackett hit a three to make it an 83-62 game in favor of Lees-McRae. Hackett knocked down a pair of free throws at the 5:47 mark of the second half to set a new career high, before extending it with a fast-break layup just 2 seconds of game time later. Although it was a terrific performance from the Sophomore, the Warriors dropped the conference matchup with the Bobcats 110-82.



What's Next:

The Warriors will travel to Shorter University on Saturday, December 14th to face off with the Hawks for the first time since 2013. After that, they are off until Thursday, January 2nd when they host Carolina Christian.