SHREVEPORT – The Wildcat men's basketball team of Louisiana Christian University returned to its winning ways Wednesday as they claimed a 63-51 at Centenary College's Gold Dome.

Bailey Hardy (Lake Charles, La. / St. Louis Catholic) scored a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats (3-2). The senior guard shot 8-of-15 from the field and drained five out of nine 3-point attempts.

The win at Centenary gave the Wildcats their third consecutive win in regular-season, non-conference games. LCU had come up short in their previous outing, an 86-73 loss in an exhibition contest at NCAA Division II Texas-Tyler on Monday.

Louisiana Christian trailed only once as the Gents scored the game's first two baskets before the Wildcats quickly built a 19-6 lead less than six minutes into the contest. The visitors established big leads that withstood comeback attempts in each of the game's two halves.

Centenary, a perennial favorite in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and participated in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2020, came within seven points of the Wildcats midway through the second half. LCU took a 36-21 lead into halftime, thanks to Jamael Owusu's (Simmesport, La. / Avoyelles Charter) 3-pointer as time expired; Owusu caught a long in-bounds pass from Konnor DeJean (New Orleans, La. / Easton Charter) standing in front of the LCU bench on the opposite side of the court with one second left in the half.

Ferontay Banks (Lafayette, La. / Lamar State–Port Arthur) gave the 'Cats their largest lead of the game when his fast-break layup off Gary Smith's (Prairieville, La. / Xavier [La.]) steal stretched LCU's lead to 45-23. The basket capped a run of six unanswered LCU points with 17:34 remaining in the game.

The Gents pulled themselves back into the contest with by outscoring LCU 16-3 between the 12:11 and 2:36 marks of the second half, which cut the Wildcat lead to 52-46. But as the excitement had continued to build at the Gold Dome, K.J. Bilbo (Bossier City, La. / Centenary) extinguished the comeback hopes of his former team with a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired. Bilbo's trey started an 8-0 LCU run that put the game out of reach in the final 100 seconds.

LCU shot 47.1 percent (11 of 23) from 3-point range in the game, while their hosts made only four out of 25 long-range shots (16 percent).

Delor Johnson (Houston, Texas / Southern University) scored nine points and pulled in 11 rebounds. Banks and Bilbo scored eight points apiece, with Banks adding eight rebounds and five assists to his line.

The Wildcats return to action Friday, Nov. 25, when they play in the first of two games in two days at the Philander Smith College Thanksgiving Classic in Little Rock, Ark.