Central, SC - The Southern Wesleyan University Warriors hosted the Emmanuel University Lions on Wednesday Evening. 

The Warriors were led in scoring by Eric Hackett who matched his career high of 26 points which he set on December 7th against Lees-McRae. Christopher Osobaye and RJ Bell each had 8 rebounds and Che Smith had a team-high 5 assists. As a team, SWU shot 31-60 (51.7%) from the field, 6-18 (33.3%) from three, and 6-12 (66.7%) from the free-throw line. 



Game Vitals:

Final: Southern Wesleyan University 82, Emmanuel University 76

Records: Southern Wesleyan University (4-8, 2-4), Emmanuel University (9-7, 7-1)



How It Happened:

The first five on the floor in Wednesday's conference contest against Emmanuel were Che Smith, RJ Bell, Marcus Long, Christopher Osobaye, and Jamarras McCray. The Warriors opened the scoring on their first possession of the game. After SWU grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds, the ball eventually found Osobaye who was fouled and made 1-2 shots from the stripe. He scored the first eight points of the game for the Warriors, adding a layup, a tip-in, and a three within the first six minutes. Bell followed with more second-chance points on the next possession as Southern Wesleyan opened up on a 10-2 start. Eric Hackett scored his first points of the game a minute and a half later, pushing the SWU lead up to double-digits. One major area of success for Emmanuel was their perimeter shooting, and the Lions made more threes in the first half than the Warriors did in the entire game, and they got one from Devin Story and back-to-back threes from Chris Dees to cut the lead to one. But, SWU wasn't ready to back down just yet as they went on a 7-0 run to end the half including another putback from Osobaye just before the buzzer to retake a two-point lead. 

Southern Wesleyan opened the second half with much of the same, getting a three from Smith and a fast-break bucket in the paint from Osobaye to make it a 12-0 run in 1:55 of game time across two halves. The lead was pushed back up to nine prior to the under-sixteen media timeout thanks to a score from Hackett, who has been on a tear in conference play, putting up 20+ points in four of the first six league games. He's done so efficiently too, as he shot over 60% from the field in the two games with a career-high 26 points which included Wednesday's game where he sat at 12-17 (70.65) from the field. Emmanuel retook the lead about halfway through the second half, but the Warriors matched them with a quick 6-0 run to go up three. However, the Lions had a 4:00 stretch where they locked down on the defensive end and kept the Warriors off the offensive glass, keeping SWU scoreless as they went on an 11-0 run of their own to grab a hold of the game. Southern Wesleyan got the lead back down to five on a couple of occasions, but could never put the pieces together for a decisive run and dropped their second straight home conference game. 



What's Next:

The Warriors will be on the road for their next three games, taking on North Greenville on Saturday, January 11th, Erskine on Wednesday, January 15th, and Mount Olive on Saturday, January 18th.