The Centre men's basketball team saw its 30-game home winning streak come to an end at the hands of Birmingham-Southern, falling 66-61 in a Southern Athletic Association game on Friday in Alumni Gymnasium.

It had been nearly three years since the Colonels lost in Danville, with the last defeat coming to Rhodes on Feb. 19, 2012. Since then, the Colonels put together a home streak that was the second longest in Division III and the sixth longest across all NCAA Divisions.

In Friday's contest, Centre found itself trying to catch up most of the way after falling behind 37-28 at the halftime break and eventually by as many as 17 points after BSC opened the second half on an 8-0 run. The Colonels spent most of the final 15 minutes chipping away at the lead, but the Panthers were able to hold on with some timely shooting, making 3-pointers each of the next three times Centre got the margin to single digits.

Larry Thomas, who led Birmingham-Southern with 13 points, made one of those 3-pointers to go up 61-50 with 3:17 to play, but the Colonels surged back from there. Blake Scinta (Louisville, Ky.) Mike Geegan (Bowling Green, Ky.), and Matt Gump (Bellefontaine, Ohio) made free throws on consecutive possessions to make the score 61-56 with 1:55 to play, and Centre would eventually get the margin to one possession at 64-61 after a Josh Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.) 3-pointer with 31 seconds left. It was as close as Centre would get though, as Southern's Evan Lewis made a free throw on the ensuing possession and a Karsner 3-pointer missed the mark when Centre got the ball back.

Centre led just briefly in the first half, storming back from an early 14-6 deficit with a 14-2 run. The last lead the Colonels would hold was at 22-21 before the Panthers closed the half by outscoring Centre 11-2 over the last 5:44.

Scinta finished with a game-high 17 points while Karsner added 15 and Sam Gruber (LaGrange, Ky.) contributed 12 off the bench on 4-of-7 3-point shooting. Alex Avery and Ian Thom joined Thomas in double figures for Birmingham-Southern.

For the game, the Panthers shot 47 percent (22-of-47) from the field and 46 percent (10-of-22) from 3-point range while Centre shot an uncharacteristic 36 percent (19-of-53) overall and 30 percent (9-of-30) from outside. Centre held a 35-32 edge on the boards and turned the ball over 15 times to Birmingham-Southern's 16.

With the loss Centre drops to 9-3 overall and 0-2 in SAA play while Birmingham-Southern improves to 8-4 and evens its conference record at 1-1. The Colonels are back on the court when they host Millsaps on Sunday.