BELTON, Texas – The Trinity women's basketball team opened up the 2021-22 season with a 76-70 overtime loss against second-ranked East Texas Baptist University on Saturday night.

The Tigers tied the game 59-59 with 1:41 remaining, which proved to be the final points of regulation. East Texas Baptist had the ball with 12.0 seconds to play, but Trinity's Hailey Coleman (Kansas City, Mo. / St. Teresa's Academy) made a defensive stop to send the game to overtime.

Coleman finished with a team-leading 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the game, adding four rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.

Kelly Simmons (Washington, D.C. / Antonian College Prep) had a Tiger-best 10 rebounds off the bench, as well as chipping in with nine points and three blocks. Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) hit 6-for-10 at the foul line on her way to a career-best 13-point night.

Trinity had an early 62-59 lead less than a minute into overtime, but East Texas Baptist scored six straight points to pull in front and eventually led by as many as seven points in the period. Ashlyn Milton (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo) knocked down a three-pointer with 55.4 seconds left to cut it to a three-point game, but that was as close as the Tigers got down the stretch as ETBU escaped with the win.

The Rundown

After both teams traded leads early in the first quarter, Trinity pulled in front for good less than two minutes in as Ava Limonciello (Waltham, Mass. / St. Mark's School) scored her first bucket of the night. The lead crept up to five points for the first time at the 4:07 mark on a bucket from first-year Bailey Timmons (Argyle, Texas / Argyle). East Texas made it a one-possession game a couple of times to close out the quarter, but Robbins hit a pair of foul shots in the final seconds to push it back to a 19-14 lead after the opening 10 minutes.

Trinity doubled the lead in the first 63 seconds as Limonciello hit a three-pointer and Coleman dropped in a jump shot to make it a 24-14 game. East Texas Baptist used a quick 6-0 run to get back in the game and the teams went back-and-forth heading towards halftime. Milton hit a three-pointer with just under three minutes to go, but ETBU rallied with seven unanswered to tie the game at 31-31 with 21 seconds remaining. Free throws once again gave Trinity late points in the period as Simmons went 2-for-2 at the line to give the TU Tigers a slim 33-31 lead at the break.

After a slow start to the third quarter, East Texas began the scoring with a three-pointer that gave them their first lead since the opening minutes. Trinity was quickly back in front on a basket from Limonciello on the next possession, but ETBU used a quick 6-0 run to pull away. The TU Tigers answered with a run of their own and tied the game 40-40 with 5:43 left in the period. Trinity took a brief 48-47 lead in the final minute, but East Texas Baptist held a 49-48 lead after three quarters.

Coleman started the fourth-quarter scoring with a rare three-pointer that put Trinity back in front, but ETBU scored six straight to regain the advantage. Following the media timeout that saw ETBU clinging to a 56-53 lead, Robbins scored four straight Trinity points to edge in front with 3:25 left in regulation.

East Texas Baptist made 3-of-4 free throws on back-to-back possessions around the two-minute mark and the second-ranked Tigers were back in the lead. That's when Coleman tied the game at 59-59. Both teams missed their next shot and then combined for three turnovers in the final minute before heading to overtime.

After Milton cut the lead to three with under a minute to play, East Texas Baptist knocked down 5-of-6 free throws to help hold off the Trinity rally.  

Numbers to Note

Limonciello finished the game with a career-high 11 points in her first career start, while Milton scored 10 points in her 25 minutes of action.

Trinity shot 45.3% (24-of-53) from the field and held ETBU to just 36.9% (24-of-65) shooting in the game. Neither team shot well from beyond the arc, making just five shots each and shooting 33.3% or less. ETBU hit just under 80% (23-for-29) at the foul line, while Trinity connected on 65.4% (17-of-26) at the charity stripe.

Coach Speak

"To cut your teeth on the team ranked number two in the country, and have ample opportunities to win the game – I'll take that," exclaimed Head Coach Cameron Hill. "We are nowhere near the team we will be in March and that's exciting."

Up Next

Trinity will finish off the weekend against tournament host University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday evening.