IRVING, Texas â€" A year removed from a last-place finish in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs will play for an SCAC Men's Basketball Championship and an NCAA Division III tournament berth.
 
TLU (17-9) quieted a capacity University of Dallas crowd of 812 at the Maher Athletic Center and downed the tournament host 82-65 Saturday evening to advance to Sunday's 2:30 p.m. championship game.
 
The Bulldogs, the tournament's top seed, will face either No. 2 seed Centenary (La.) or No. 3 seed Southwestern. (Centenary and Southwestern played in the semifinal directly after TLU's win over Dallas.)
 
The Bulldogs, the co-regular season champion with Centenary, led for the final 32 minutes against Dallas and opened up a 23-point lead with 11:23 remaining in the game.
 
TLU led 41-33 before a 19-4 run moved the lead to 60-37. In that 19-4 burst, the Bulldogs hit three three-pointers and had a Harris Jowell (Brock/Brock) dunk off an inbounds play.
 
"First off, we would like to give the glory to God as He has been with us every step of the way in this season, and our team's faith is a big part of what we do each and every day," said Jimmy Smith, TLU's first-year head coach.
 
"I thought (today's game) was the most complete game we played all season. The guys did an excellent job of executing the game plan, especially on the defensive end. Offensively, we did a good job sharing the ball and attacked the basket when we had the opportunity."
 
Smith received a near triple-double performance from his sophomore point guard Sterling Holmes (San Antonio/Antonian/Richland College). Holmes scored a game-high 21, collected nine rebounds and dished out seven assists.
 
Holmes hit all three of his three-point attempts and went 8-for-9 from the free throw line.
 
The Bulldogs made 10 of 18 total three-point shots. TLU went 5-for-9 in each half from distance.
 
Sophomore shooting guard Jordan Kouremetis (San Antonio/O'Connor) added 14 points and five rebounds. He made three three-pointers.
 
Senior forward Donte McGee (Victoria/Memorial/Texas A&M-Kinsgville) just missed a double-double. McGee scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds. He hit a pair of threes.
 
TLU made 13 of its final 21 shots (61.9 percent) and finished at 54.3 percent shooting for the game.


The Bulldogs held Dallas (18-9) to 34.5 percent shooting in the first half and 35.3 percent in the second half. The Crusaders were 6-of-28 from the three-point line.
 
TLU avenged a regular-season loss to Dallas on the Maher Athletic Center court.
 
In the Sunday championship final, the Bulldogs will face either a Centenary team that TLU holds a 1-1 record against or a Southwestern team that TLU is 2-0 against.
 
Seguin radio station KWED 1580 AM, with Sports Director Mike McBride, will have the call for the Sunday championship final. An audio-only webcast of the KWED broadcast can be found on www.seguintoday.com.
 
The SCAC will have live video (pay-per-view) and free live stats from scacsports.com. Links to the audio webcast, video webcast and the live stats can be found on www.tlubulldogs.com.