SEGUIN â€" Texas Lutheran defended its SCAC regular-season title and stayed alive for a chance to grab the top seed in next week's SCAC Championship with a 66-59 home win over Southwestern on Friday night inside a nearly-sold out Memorial Gymnasium.
 
Plenty was on the line Friday night. The Bulldogs came into the game trailing the Pirates by one game in the conference standings. The win secured a co-regular season title for the Bulldogs and secured no less than a two-seed in the tournament. It also means TLU will head into that tournament, one which it won last season, riding an eight-game winning streak.
 
The SCAC Championship will be held on the campus of the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. The three-day, six-team event will tip off on Friday, Feb. 27. The top two seeds receive byes into the semifinals on Saturday, and the final will be played on Sunday. The winner of the tournament will receive a bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Bulldogs will receive the top seed if Schreiner defeats Trinity tomorrow night, then wins a coin toss against Trinity. If either of those two things does not happen, the Bulldogs will enter the tournament as the two seed.
 
The difference in Friday's game came at the 7:19 mark of the second half. Ahead 51-47, TLU scored the next six points to open up the first double-digit lead of the game. Kristen Lye scored four of the six points. Southwestern would claw back within five with 2:37 left, but that's the closest the Pirates would get the rest of the game.
 
It was Senior Night for TLU and the five seniors on the Bulldog roster proved key to the win. The group scored 21 points, pulled down 19 rebounds and dished out six assists on the night.
 
But the Bulldogs' scoring burden was taken up by Taylor Dydalewicz (Dripping Springs, Texas). The SCAC's leading scorer dropped a game-high 17 points, shooting 4-of-6 from the field and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. She was deadly from outside, knocking down all three 3-pointers she attempted.
 
Senior center Chelsey Stolle was a force to be reckoned with on defense, pulling down 10 rebounds and blocking seven shots. The TLU career blocks leader didn't waste any time making her presence felt, blocking five shots in the first half. Those seven blocks were just two shy of tying her own school single-game record, which she shares with one other Bulldog.
 
Bianca Casas (Edinburg, Texas) was the other TLU player to finish in double figures for the night. The senior notched 10 points, knocking down 2-of-4 from behind the arc. She also tied for the team lead with three assists.
 
She came up with one of the biggest shots of the game, as well. The Pirates had finally cut the TLU deficit to five with 2:37 to play. Casas came down and hit a 3-pointer on the next possession to extend TLU's lead back out to eight.
 
The Bulldogs shot 35 percent from the field for the game and 40 percent (8-of-20) from behind the arc. They were 18-of-29 (62.1%) from the charity stripe. The Pirates shot 33 percent from the field and 6-of-27 from behind the arc. They stayed in the game by knocking down 17-of-21 free throws.
 
Southwestern was led by Jordan Owens and her 16 points. They also received a 21-rebound performance from Annie Bourne.
 
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with neither team gaining more than a four-point advantage through the opening stanza. The two field goal percentages both fell below 40 percent, but both teams shot the ball well from deep.
 
The Bulldogs were scorching from outside, knocking down 7-of-13 from behind the arc. Leading the way in the three-point parade was Dydalewicz, who was a perfect 3-for-3 from deep in the opening half. She scored 13 points in the half.
 
Texas Lutheran finished the half shooting nearly 36 percent from the field. The Pirates were held to 37 percent in the half, but shot 5-of-12 from behind the arc.
 
A big reason the Pirates struggled inside the three-point line was the defensive presence of Stolle (Falls City, Texas), as she turned away those five shots.
 
The lead changed 10 times in the first half. The Pirates opened up a 6-2 lead two minutes in, and that turned out to be their largest advantage of the game. The Bulldogs quickly answered with five straight points to retake the lead.
 
The Bulldogs took a 15-11 lead with 10:26 to go in the first half, their largest lead up to that point, after a Savannah Hight 3-pointer.
 
The Pirates answered with a 7-0 run to against take a lead with 7:59 to go in the half. They would stretch the advantage all the way back out to 21-17 with 7:16 left.
 
Eventually, Dydalewicz hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a three-point lead. Southwestern would knock down one free throw and TLU would head to halftime leading 34-32.
 
Southwestern began the second half by taking a 41-40 lead with 15:31 to play. It would prove to be the final time the Bulldogs trailed. A free throw from Dydalewicz tied it and a Bailey Champion layup gave the Bulldogs the lead for good with 13:21 remaining.
 
One of the keys to the Bulldogs keeping that lead was the way the defense locked down Southwestern in the middle of the second half. After falling behind 41-40, the Bulldogs held the Pirates to just two points for the next seven minutes to build a six-point advantage.
 
The Bulldogs shot 35 percent in the second half and extended that lead despite shooting 1-of-7 from behind the arc in the final 20 minutes.