Box Score FORT WORTH-- The Texas Wesleyan men's basketball team (19-12, 12-10 SAC) suffered a 69-64 loss in the opening round of the SAC Tournament against Central Christian College (13-17, 6-16) on Tuesday night at the Sid Richardson Center. 

TXWES played tough defense in the first half as it only trailed 32-27 at halftime after Davon Berry made a mid-range shot in the final seconds of the first half. The Rams were able to battle through the adversity in the first half of a low-scoring, physical game to stay within 5 points.

The Tigers started off the second half with four straight points to extend its lead to nine points. Sebastian Karwoski responded with an easy layup and Davon Berry buried a mid-range shot to cut the deficit the Rams faced to 5 points. CCCK made a three-pointer to extend its lead to 45-36 with 13 minutes left in the game. 

Karwoski made a free-throw and converted a layup that energized the crowd. Kristian Lafayette brought energy off the bench as he immediately impacted the game with a block, two rebounds, and a contested layup in a 2 minute span. With 9:43 left in the game, CCCK led 50-41. 

A contested layup by Berry cut the deficit to 59-51 with 5:07 left in the game. Berry fought hard to get to the free-throw line and converted both his chances to cut the deficit to 6 points with 3:30 left in the game. Freshman Jalen Anderson converted an and-one to make the score 59-56 with 2:03 left in the game. TXWES played stifling defense to force a shot-clock violation that energized the crowd. Davon Berry drew a foul and converted both free-throws to bring the Rams within one point with 1:30 left in the game. 

The Rams shot 21 of 51 from the field (41 percent) and 19 of 25 (76 percent) from the free-throw line. TXWES scored 22 points in the paint and recorded 32 rebounds. Senior Davon Berry scored 16 points and junior Elijah Elliot scored 10 points. The Rams recorded 8 steals, 11 assists, 3 blocks, 17 points off turnovers, and 5 second chance points.

CCCK extend their lead to 6 with 1:10 left in the game. Jalen Anderson was fouled and converted both his free-throws to cut the deficit to four points. The Rams battled back from down 9 points multiple times in this game. Freshman Matthias Nero came up with a huge steal and finished through contact at the other end to cut the deficit the Rams faced to two points with 33 seconds left in the game. CCCK made one of two free-throw attempts to give the Tigers a 65-62 lead. Senior Davon Berry raced down the court to finish at the rim which made the score 65-64 with 17 seconds left in the game. CCCK went on to make four free-throws in a row to ice the game away as it upended TXWES 69-64.