Scoring 12 of the game’s last 14 points, Sewanee defeated top-seeded host Centre 62-59 in the Southern Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament championship game Sunday in Danville, Kentucky, and will be playing in the NCAA Division III tournament. Coach Mick Hedgepeth’s team is 22-6 with the program’s first conference title since 1997. After scoring 40 points with eight 3-point baskets in 11 tries in Saturday’s win over No. 2 seed Berry, the third-seeded Tigers’ Luke Smith had 23 points Sunday with 6-of-7 success on 3s and five assists. He was the most valuable player, joined on the all-tournament team by Cam Caldwell. Perry Ayers buckets gave Centre (23-5) leads of 57-50 and 59-53 with 2:28 and 1:48 to go, but Smith answered each with a 3 and then assisted Hunter Buescher and Michael Barry on the tying and winning 3s. Barry’s only points came with 2.2 seconds left. Buescher scored 13 points with three 3s.
Track & Field
» The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Kennedy Thomson set school records in finishing fourth in the women’s mile (4:47.76) and third in the 800-meter run (2:09.91) Sunday in the Southern Conference indoor track and field meet at Lexington, Virginia. The third place earned her all-conference status. The Mocs’ Emily Poole and Makenzie Jones were sixth and seventh in the 5000, and the 4×400-relay team of Nicole Buehrle, Abby Bateman, Katie Coker and Thomson finished sixth. UTC was seventh in the team standings. Saturday’s Mocs highlight was a third-place finish and all-conference honors in the distance medley relay for Ashlynd Broling, Coker, Bateman and Buehrle. Poole was seventh in the 3000. Samford’s Selena Popp from Baylor School became a three-time champion in both the pentathlon and the high jump, anchored the winning 4×400 and was the SoCon women’s most outstanding athlete for the second year in a row. In her 3,558 pentathlon points she won the long jump and high jump and finished third in the shot put and 60 hurdles. East Tennessee State senior Kiana Davis from Ooltewah was second, 7.53 to 7.52 for Wofford’s winner, Sunday in the 60 dash.
Tennis
» The UTC women’s tennis team improved to 6-2 with its sixth straight win Sunday, 5-2 over USC Upstate, and the men Mocs (8-4) also beat Upstate 5-2 and added a 7-0 indoors defeat of Carson-Newman for five in a row.
Softball
» The Chattanooga State softball team ended its trip to central Florida with a six-inning 8-0 win over Miami Dade and an 8-4 loss to State College of Florida on Sunday. Lindsay Modar pitched a one-hitter in the win, when Shelby Penning was 2-for-3 with a home run and a double and Ashlyn Holland doubled and singled. In the loss for the Lady Tigers (10-2), Lauren Hamby homered and Mary Kate Pritchett hit a two-run triple.
Baseball
» The Sewanee baseball team defeated visiting Carroll 7-5 and 15-5 on Sunday. Carter Huffman was 4-for-5 for the Tigers (6-1) in the first game, when Jared Demkowicz was 3-for-4, scored two runs and equaled Chris McNulty with two batted in. Huffman was 2-for-4 with three RBIs in game two, while Max Murray was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and matched Riley Brandvold (1-for-1, 2 walks) with three runs, Demkowicz had two RBIs again and Trey Akins, Jack Galanek and Bryce Benedict each had two hits, two runs and an RBI.
Lacrosse
» In matches in Minnesota, the Sewanee women’s lacrosse team beat Augsburg 15-2 Saturday night and Wisconsin-River Falls 15-3 on Sunday. The Tigers are 5-0 with a combined scoring margin of 85-17. Against Augsburg they got three goals each from Grace Zechman and Mary Kate Myers, Zechman adding two assists. Sunday, Zechman had six assists and a goal, Sarah Strand had three goals and six draw controls and Brooke Winfield, Catherine Crigler and Hattie Fogarty netted two goals apiece.
» Sewanee’s men lost 13-8 Sunday at Guilford and are 0-2. Thomas Lynde scored three goals and Will Pratt had two goals and three assists in defeat.