The Knights (15-11, 6-2 PCAC South) came into Friday night's home game against Southwestern (22-4, 8-0 PCAC South) looking to tie the Jaguars for first place in the PCAC South, but the Knights couldn't hold on to a 12-point second half lead and fell, 71-66.
City's Robby Robinson scored 17 points and tied a season-high with 17 rebounds. Nashom Carter poured in a team-high 19 points, while Joseph Riley added 15 points.
The Knights shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half and held Southwestern to 34.3 percent, but only came away with a 32-29 halftime lead.
City started the second half on a 13-4 run to take its largest lead of the game at 45-33. Southwestern scored the next seven points to get within five, but the Knights answered with a 3-pointer from Adrian Byrd-Jelinek and a traditional 3-point play from Robinson after a steal near midcourt to push their lead back up to 11.
A jump shot by Robinson near the free throw line gave the Knights a 65-55 lead with 5:32 remaining, but that turned out to be the last field goal for City.
Southwestern, led by Marquavian Stephens game-high 22 points, rallied back in a hurry. Stephens scored 10 points down the stretch, including the game-tying (65-65) 3-pointer with 3:24 left.
After a Knight turnover and foul, Marc Combs went to the line and hit two free throws to give Southwestern its first lead of the game, 67-65, with 2:46 remaining.
Riley was fouled with 38 seconds and had a chance to tie the game, but was only able to make 1-of-2 free throws.
Stephens then made both of his attempts from the charity line on the other end to give Southwestern a 69-66 lead with 15 seconds left.
Riley hoisted up a step-back 3-pointer that would've tied the game, but it was off the mark, and after a rebound and foul, Jordan Cooke put the game away for the Jaguars with a pair of free throws with 0.7 left.
The Knights turned it over 21 times, which led to a 25-8 advantage for Southwestern on points off turnovers. City had a season-low four offensive rebounds, while the Jaguars grabbed 10, leading to an 11-2 benefit on second chance points.
The loss ends the Knights' 3-year run as PCAC South champions and it was also City's first conference home loss since January 21, 2015, a streak of 22 games. That loss also came at the hands of Southwestern.
