SAN ANTONIO – The third-ranked Trinity women's basketball team returned to Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference action with a 74-60 victory against Schreiner University on Thursday evening.
The Tigers improved to 12-0 this season with the win, while Schreiner fell to 6-6 with the loss. Trinity remains unbeaten with a 3-0 record in conference, while Schreiner suffered its first league loss to fall to 2-1.

Despite being limited to just 20 minutes on the floor due to foul trouble, Ashlyn Milton (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo) led the way for Trinity, hitting 6-of-14 from the field and 4-for-6 from three-point range on her way to 20 points. She has scored 20 or more in four of the last five games for the Tigers, including the last three straight. With her four three-pointers made, Milton needs just three more to tie the Tiger career record for long-range shooting.

Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) and Addie Putnam (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Xavier College Prep) both added 10 points to round out Trinity's double-figure scorers. Napoli also led the team with four assists, while Putnam added three rebounds and a pair of steals.

Natalie Anderson (San Jose, Calif. / Archbishop Mitty) paced Trinity with nine rebounds in just 16 minutes off the bench. Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) led the team with five steals to go with eight points, adding four rebounds and three assists.

Trinity will host Colorado College in continued SCAC action next week, matching up the two teams that have played for the SCAC Championship each of the past two years. The two teams will play on Monday, January 2, at 2:00 p.m.

The Rundown
Both teams struggled to score early in the game and Trinity held a narrow 5-4 lead midway through the opening quarter. Following the under-five media timeout, Schreiner scored 12 unanswered points to take an 11-point lead (16-5) heading towards the final minute. The Tigers were able to score six of the final eight points to close the quarter and cut it to an 18-11 Schreiner lead after one.
Schreiner opened the second quarter with back-to-back three-pointers to open up its biggest lead of the game at 24-11, but shortly after that, Trinity caught fire the rest of the half. The Tigers put together a 15-3 run that began with seven straight points and eventually cut the lead to just one (27-26) at the 3:36 mark. The two teams split the final 10 points of the half and Schreiner took a 32-31 lead into intermission.

Trinity used a dominating third quarter to flip the game completely around, outscoring the visitors 32-9 overall to eclipse its first-half scoring total in just 10 minutes. The Schreiner lead was still one early in the quarter when Milton knocked down a three-pointer to put Trinity up 39-37 with 7:52 left, and the Tigers never trailed again. That three-pointer jump-started a 17-2 run to take a 17-point lead with just over three minutes left in the quarter. Schreiner didn't make a field goal over the final 8:14 of the quarter, netting just four points on foul shots as Trinity pulled away. Maggie Shipley (Arlington, Va. / Yorktown) knocked down a three-pointer in the final seconds to give the Tigers a 63-41 lead heading into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter began with Trinity extending the lead even further, taking a 69-42 advantage after early three-pointers from Milton and Napoli. Schreiner netted 11 straight points after that to bring it back to a 16-point game, but the lead was too much to overcome in the end. The Mountaineers drew within 11 with 1:04 remaining, but Trinity scored the final three points to finish off the win.

Coach Speak
"Christmas Vacation: we just had it, but it's also a classic movie starring Chevy Chase," said Head Coach Cameron Hill. "In the film, literally nothing goes right for Clark – not the lights, not the tree, Cousin Eddie shows up, then the neighbors want some smoke. But he never gives up, and never lets the challenges of the day deter his commitment to a fabulous holiday with his family. That was tonight. No matter how may things went wrong, the TOGETHERS stuck together. The first half felt like a jelly-of-the-month club, but the win was better than a cannonball in the new pool."

Up Next
Trinity will host Colorado College in the first game of the 2023 calendar year, finishing off the four-game home stand. The two Tiger teams will square off on Monday, January 2, at 2:00 p.m.