The Southwestern men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season in a 60-50 road game at Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago, NE, on Saturday, Nov. 25. Just three weeks earlier the Spartans dominated the Warriors in a 101-78 victory in Creston.

"In college basketball, every game is its own entity," said Southwestern Head Coach Todd Lorensen. "You can never assume anything or take a game for granted. Credit to Little Priest for having a great game plan and executing it. Hopefully we can use this to help us move forward as a team during the final weeks of the first semester."

Sophomore backcourt Khallid Edwards and Alijah Thomas paced the offense with 13 and 12 points respectively. They combined to go just 5-21 from the arc, while the rest of the team went 0-19 from deep. Freshman Chad Moran added nine points.

"I felt we had some quality looks that we just didn't make, but facing a zone the entire game we were too content settling for jumpers and did a poor job of getting looks in the paint," said Lorensen.

After a 6-0 run gave Southwestern a 22-17 lead with 5:31 to go in the first half, LPTC responded with a 16-5 run to end the half and take a 33-27 lead into the break. The Spartans managed to tie the game on three occasions, with the last a 50-50 score with 1:31 remaining in the game. Little Priest made 10-12 free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

Southwestern falls to 7-1 on the year and will be back in action at North Central Missouri College in Trenton, MO, on Nov. 29, for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.