ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The 18th-ranked Trinity men's basketball team opened up the 2022-23 season with an 83-48 win against SUNY-Fredonia as part of the weekend's Chuck Resler Tournament, hosted by No. 11 University of Rochester.

After a low-scoring first half by both teams, the Tigers exploded for 51 points in the final period to run away with the game. Trinity more than doubled Fredonia State's scoring output in the final 20 minutes. The Tigers also got 20 players into the game to start the season, including 10 players who played 10 or more minutes.

AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) led all scorers with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting overall and hit two of his four three-point attempts. Clark also finished with a game-high seven assists, which was just one shy of the entire team total for Fredonia. Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) and Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) hit three triples each to round out Trinity's double figure scorers for the game.

Trinity advances to the Tournament Championship tomorrow night against either Rochester or the University of Texas-Dallas.

The Rundown

The score looked more like a baseball game at the start as Trinity led 1-0 after neither team made a basket for nearly four minutes. Fredonia got the first bucket, and the teams traded scores for several minutes until the Tigers began to pull away around the midway point of the first half.

Harvey connected on back-to-back scores for Trinity to give his team its biggest lead of the game at 20-12 with 6:27 remaining in the period. Fredonia battled back to within one with seven unanswered points over a stretch of nearly three minutes, but the Tigers never relinquished the lead. Trinity finished the period with a 12-4 run over the final 3:43, including a pair of three-pointers from Brown. One final bucket in the waning seconds from Abdullah Roberts (Houston, Texas / HCYA) made it a 32-23 game at the break.

Harvey nailed his third three-pointer of the game in the opening seconds of the second half, jumpstarting a 16-0 run that put the game out of reach for good. Less than six minutes into the half, Clark sank a three-pointer that doubled up Fredonia 53-26 and put the finishing touches on a 21-3 stretch for the Tigers.

Just over a minute later, Griffin Levine (Dallas, Texas / Yavneh) began a 10-0 run for Trinity with a three-point basket. The run ended with under 11 minutes remaining and the Tiger lead was 35 points at 63-28. Despite the lopsided score and the bench emptying, Trinity never allowed Fredonia to put together more than two consecutive baskets the rest of the way and maintained that margin by the final buzzer.

Numbers to Note

The Tigers have now won back-to-back season openers for the first time since 2008-09.

Harvey picked up 13 points in his first career start for the Tigers, connecting on 5-of-7 from the field and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Brown knocked down 3-of-4 from distance for an 11-point afternoon, adding a team-best six rebounds to his stat line.

Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) and Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / Metairie Park) scored six points each, giving Trinity's starters 51 of the 83 points scored in the game. Hanley added four assists and three rebounds, while Jenkins had five boards and a team-leading three steals.

Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) led a deep bench with nine points in just 13 minutes, finishing 4-for-5 from the floor, and pulling down four rebounds.

Coach Speak

"Always nice to win the first game of the season," exclaimed Head Coach Jimmy Smith. "I was really proud of our defensive effort and it was great to see the offense start to click in the second half!"

Up Next

Trinity will face either hosting Rochester or the University of Texas-Dallas in the Chuck Resler Tournament Championship game tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. (ET).