ABILENE, Texas - Trinity University Men's Basketball collected a second come-from-behind victory in as many regular-season games to open the 2021-22 campaign with a 72-69 defeat of Hardin-Simmons University on the road Friday night.

The Tigers (2-0) sealed its second in-region win over an American Southwest Conference opponent on a dagger three-pointer from senior guard Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) who led the way with 16 points and, combined with 11 second-half points from junior forward Enzo Sechi (Houston, Texas / Taylor), orchestrated the rally over the Cowboys.

Junior guard Griffin Levine (Dallas, Texas / Yavneh) put Hanley in position for his dagger both directly as the credited assist on the jumper and indirectly as he scored all of his seven points in the final four minutes of the contest.

Trinity Men's Basketball remains in Abilene overnight to take on McMurry University Saturday at 6 p.m. CT.

The Rundown

Hanley engineered another hot start in the early going of the 2021-22 season as he collected eight of Trinity's first 14 points on a pair of three-pointers and a swift driving dunk down the right baseline following a leading swing pass from sophomore guard Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) which created a 14-6 cushion just six minutes in.

As the strong start faded the Tigers' advantage dwindled over the middle portion of the first half, enduring three tied scores before finally ceding the lead to Hardin-Simmons at 25-23 with 4:23 to play. The Cowboys snuck in an 11-0 run in the closing minutes to create a 32-23 advantage before a pair of free throws from first-year guard Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) pulled the tally into the halftime score of 32-25.

Brown took the lid off the basket to start the second half with a quick-trigger three-pointer from the corner. The next few possessions went back-and-forth as Sechi collected four points to keep the margin five points, 37-32 in favor of the Cowboys just over two minutes in. Junior guard Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / MP Country Day) brought Trinity back to a one-possession margin moments later for the first time since the start of the first-half run from Hardin-Simmons.

Hanley returned to the scoring column with 14 minutes to go as he eclipsed double-digits on a strong finish inside that led to an unsuccessful and-one opportunity. The Flower Mound, Texas-native converted his next and-one opportunity to leg Trinity's first advantage since the first half at 51-50 just past the 10-minute mark on the clock, causing the game to fall back into a see-saw affair.

Just as he did in the season-opener on Sunday, Sechi quietly went to work in the second half as he caught up to Hanley on the stat sheet with 13 points with seven minutes to go, nine of which came in the second frame to that point, and mark the first two-possession lead of the period.

Levine posted all of his seven points in a two-minute window around the under-four media break as he brought the game into a draw on back-to-back possessions on midrange jumpers, then took a 67-64 lead for the Tigers with two minutes to go with a potential dagger from the left wing. Just as the Cowboys appeared to have a lead-changing opportunity in transtition at 67-66 with just over a minute to play, Levine stepped in front of the outlet pass for an unmarked steal to retain the ball for what would ultimately be an empty possession.

Hanley returned to push the lead to four at 70-66 with just 10 seconds to play, three left on the shot clock, as Levine found him open on the right wing for a dagger three-ball. Sophomore guard Ashton Owens (Trinity, Ala. / West Morgan) absorbed the intentional foul following a desperate three-pointer from the Cowboys found the bottom of the net and iced the game with a perfect pair from the line.

Coach Speak

"Amazing win for our team," Head Coach Jimmy Smith exclaimed. "Hardin-Simmons has a very good team and are really well-coached. In the second half, we played so well together on both ends of the floor."

"If we continue to play like we did in the second half tonight, we are going to be a fun team to watch."

Notable Numbers

Hanley led three Tigers in double-digits in the points column with 16, followed by Sechi at 15 points, Brown with 10.

Senior guard AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) collected the first double-digit rebounding performance of the young season with 10 boards, followed by senior forward David Nickell (Humble, Texas / Atascocita) with six.

Levine coupled his spark-plug second-half scoring effort with a team-high five assists, including the dime from Hanley's dagger.

Trinity nearly doubled its scoring efforts from the first half to the second as the Tigers scored 47 of their 72 points in the latter 20 minutes to execute its second comeback victory in as many games thus far.

Up Next

Trinity Men's Basketball takes on McMurry Saturday evening and will stay on the road next weekend to take on two more American Southwest Conference adversaries, Concordia University and University of Texas at Dallas.

The Tigers will then return to San Antonio to host Birmingham-Southern College (AL) and Carleton College (MN) over the Thanksgiving weekend.