After 11 straight victories, the Centre men's basketball team suffered its first loss in 2014 with a 53-50 decision in a Southern Athletic Association game Friday in Birmingham, Ala.

Donovan Whiteside (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Josh Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.) led the way for the Colonels with 12 points each while Larry Thomas led Birmingham-Southern with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

The game went back and forth in the early minutes, but BSC took the lead when Thomas hit a jumper that broke an 8-8 tie. The Panthers led the rest of the way.

In a low scoring first half, BSC edged its way ahead and took a 21-17 lead to the break. A thomas 3-pointer and Colin Henry layup put Southern up 26-17 in the second half's opening moments. The Panthers took their biggest lead at 43-32 after a Brendan Marschner layup at the 12 minute mark.

Centre fought its way back into the game, eventually getting as close as 43-41 on a Collin Lopez (Louisville, Ky.) layup with six minutes to play, but the Colonels would get no closer.

For the game, Centre shot an uncharacteristic 33 percent (17-of-52) overall and 25 percent (5-of-20) from 3-point range. Southern shot 39 percent (18-of-46) overall and 36 percent (5-of-14) from outside. The Panthers outrebounded Centre 38-34.

Centre drops to 17-4 overall and 10-1 in the SAA. Southern improves to 13-9 overall and 7-4 in conference play. Centre continues its road trip when it faces Millsaps on Sunday.