Shreveport, La. - After a back and forth first half, Trinity fell to a red-hot Centenary College team that used an early second half run to stifle the Tigers. TU went into the half trailing 39-38 despite being up by seven points. There were eight ties and twelve lead changes in the first half. The Gents came out strong in the second half and went on a 10-0 run before Trinity could respond. Trinity is now (8-2, 2-1 SCAC) after dropping today's conference game. 

Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) led the Tigers with 21 points and 12 rebounds . The sophomore guard also went 10-of-12 at the charity stripe to score 20 or more points in his fourth straight game. 

Junior forward Enzo Sechi (Houston, Texas / Taylor) added 14 points and three boards while shooting 50 percent from the field on twelve attempts. Junior guard Griffin Levine came off the bench and scored a career-high 11 points on the afternoon while adding three rebounds and two assists. 

Trinity shot 38.1 percent from the floor as a team on 24-of-63 shooting while Centenary shot 26-of-69 for 37.7 percent. The Tigers grabbed 50 total rebounds while the Gents tallied 42 boards during the game. 

The Rundown

The Gents of Centenary College scored the first basket of the afternoon on a three pointer. Soon after, Sechi was fouled and drained both free throws to put the Tigers on the board. Both the Tigers and Gents would continue to trade buckets until Trinity took a 23-16 lead with 10:55 left in the first half. The seven point margin was the largest lead for TU. 

Over the next few minutes, the Gents went on a 6-0 run to trail TU 23-22. Both teams were tied 29-29 with 6:18 to go in the first until Hanley went to the charity stripe and made both free throws. The Tigers took a 38-35 lead on a three pointer from Levine with just over a minute left before the half. Over the next minute, Centenary took a 39-38 lead over Trinity. 

The Tigers started slow in the second half while the Gents leaned on their late first half momentum to take a 60-46 lead with 12:41 to go. 

Centenary would continue to pull away as time expired and led by as much as 16 points before Trinity started to chip away. After trading baskets, TU managed to knock a few free throws down to get within seven points of the Gents. 

With just under a minute left in the game, Centenary managed to go up by 13 points before Brown knocked down a three pointer to make the score 82-72 in favor of the Gents. Griffin scored four points in a matter of seconds to bring the Tigers within eight points with 23 seconds left. Shortly after, senior forward Mick Marquez (Anthem, Ariz. / Anthem Prep) was fouled and made both free throws but Trinity ultimately fell to the Gents by a score of 87-78. 

Coach Speak

"Tough loss, '' started Head Coach Jimmy Smith. "All credit to Centenary, they played very hard and forced us into a lot of turnovers. It's hard to win on the road as is, but virtually impossible when you turn the ball over as much as we did. Looking forward to being back home against Alma on Tuesday."

Up Next

Trinity will host Alma College and Calvin University in the Leslie Robinson Christmas Classic next week. The Tigers will play Alma on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. and finish the tournament Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. against Calvin.