Men's Basketball Season Comes to End at Conference Championship

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The No.4 Point University men's basketball team's season came to an end as it fell 81-76 to No. 5 University of Tennessee Southern in the opening round of the Southern States Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship today.

The Skyhawks finish the 2025-26 campaign with a 10-15 mark, while the Firehawks moved to 14-15 on the year.

With both teams tied at four with less than three minutes into the opening half, UTS was able to use a 4-2 run to take an 8-6 lead. The Skyhawks and Firehawks traded baskets with Point grabbing a 13-12 lead after Yuta Yamamoto hit back-to-back free throws with 13:07 on the clock.  Point pushed its lead to 30-23 with under six minutes following a 17-11 run. UTS was able to tie the game at 32 with 2:40 on the clock off a 9-2 run. The Firehawks broke the tie and took a 37-36 lead into the locker room.

Coming out of the locker, Point's Kenton Steele tied the game at 37, and then both teams traded the next set of baskets to end up tied at 39. UTS went on to score the next seven points to take a 46-39 lead, but Point responded as it clawed its way back to trail 48-46 with just under 15 minutes left in the game. Both teams exchanged baskets with the Firehawks holding a 59-57 edge with 9:53 left, but that lead did not last as Robert Harris laid one in to tie the game at 59.  The Firehawks broke the tie again, but Point was able to keep the game close for most of the remaining time, trailing by four points at most. With 1:11 left in the game, the Skyhawks trailed 78-76 after Steele hit a pair of free throws. Coming out of a 30-second timeout with 27 seconds left, Point looked to force a turnover but was unable to as UTS captured the victory 81-76.

Both teams tallied 38 points in the paint, and Point registered 17 points off turnovers to UTS's 11 points.

Point was 45.6% from the field, and 75% from three-point range.

Steele led the Skyhawks in points with 21 and rebounds with eight. Teammate Harris tallied 14 points while going 5 of 14 from the field.

Kaden Paul finished the contest with 13 points and was 6 of 8 from the line, while Brandon Kincaid tallied 10 points.