SAN ANTONIO – No. 1/2 Trinity University Women's Basketball faces its final two road contests of the 2022-23 regular season this week as the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference schedule sends it to Schreiner University (Feb. 1) and Colorado College (Feb. 5).
 
After a brief hiatus last weekend, the Tigers (19-0, 10-0 SCAC) remain atop the league standings with an opportunity to make large strides toward the regular-season title as the Mountaineers (12-7, 8-2 SCAC) and black-and-yellow Tigers (13-6, 9-1 SCAC) stand as the only SCAC teams within five games of Trinity with six to go.
 
Last time out, junior Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) logged the program's first triple-double in over a decade in the 96-38 victory over University of St. Thomas through 12 points, 12 assists and 10 steals marking one of just 23 triple-doubles across NCAA III this season.
 
Trinity has won each of its last three contests by 36 or more points, including 50-plus over Centenary College (Jan. 20; 96-46) and St. Thomas (Jan. 21) in back-to-back home SCAC contests.
 
Following this week's final road trip, No. 1/2 Trinity Women's Basketball will return to San Antonio February 10 for the first of four straight at home to end the 2022-23 regular season, then take on its hosting responsibility for the 2023 SCAC Championship tournament February 24-26. The Tigers have designated the February 18 contest with Southwestern University as Senior Day.
 
NCAA III Rankings – Top of the D3hoops.com Mountain, WBCA Still Unconvinced?
 
For the third week in a row, Trinity has been ranked atop the D3hoops.com Top 25. This week's poll marked the most first-place votes for the Tigers in a regular-season poll (19) since its inception ahead of the 1999-00 season and matched the program's longest stretch as No. 1 in the poll from the first semester of the 2003-04 season.

Since topping the D3hoops.com chart on January 15, Trinity has held the No. 2 spot with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association in its national rankings, trailing Christopher Newport University (VA) whose 2021-22 postseason run was cut short by the Tigers, 76-71, in the NCAA III third round at Amherst College.
 
Through this stretch, Trinity has extended program records in the WBCA rankings to six consecutive polls with at least one first-place vote and 13 consecutive polls inside the top 10 since the end of the 2021-22 regular season.
 
SCAC Character & Community Athlete of the Week (Jan. 26) – Maggie Shipley
 
Last time out, senior Maggie Shipley (Arlington, Va. / Yorktown) led the Tigers with 19 points off the bench in the 96-38 victory over St. Thomas. Since this performance, Shipley was highlighted as last week's female SCAC Character & Community honoree. For more details, visit the story linked above.
 
Preview: Trinity Poised to Take Control of the SCAC
 
The Tigers enter their final week of road SCAC contests as the top team in NCAA III in assists per game (21.1) and is top five nationally in steals per game (3rd, 19.3), scoring offense (4th, 87.6) turnovers forced per game (4th, 31.8), scoring margin (5th, 26.9) and total points (5th, 1,665).
 
Robbins has been the primary influence for Trinity's statistical rankings as NCAA III's third-best in steals—both in total (88) and per game (4.63)—while ranking inside the top 20 in assists at 5.3 per contest for a clean 100 through 19 games.
 
Senior Ashlyn Milton (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo) continues to be one of the most lethal in NCAA III from beyond the arc as she ranks third in that nation in three-point percentage this season (46.4 percent) while collecting 2.74 long-range makes per game (23rd in NCAA III).
 
Milton is also within range of the NCAA III top-50 in overall field goal percentage, sitting just shy of 50 percent on the season while taking 51 percent of her field goal attempts from three-point range this season.
 
Sophomore Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) has averaged 19.3 points over her last four contests including back-to-back 20-point affairs in Trinity's last road weekend at Texas Lutheran University (23 points, Jan. 13) and at Southwestern (24 points, Jan. 14). Napoli slots in behind Milton with 12.2 points per game for the season with 11 double-digit outputs.
 
Shipley, Robbins and senior Addie Putnam (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Xavier) are all within three-tenths of averaging double-digit points per contest as well this season.
 

• Shipley (9.9 ppg) has been Trinity's second-best scorer on average since the turn to 2023, averaging 13.1 points per game over her last seven outings, all of which came from the bench. The senior has scored 19 or more points three times during this stretch including 19 points against Colorado College on January 2.
• Robbins (9.7 ppg) has hovered her season average within 0.5 points per game of double-digits since dropping 20 points on LeTourneau University on November 27. Since the New Year, the junior has shifted focus to facilitation with an average of seven assists per game over the last seven.
• Putnam (9.7 ppg) still holds Trinity's high mark for individual points in a game this season as she opened the 2022-23 campaign with 26 points at Birmingham-Southern College which set a program record with 11 made attempts from the field without a miss.

 
On the Mountaineers: In another step forward for the program from last year's 10-6 record in SCAC play, Schreiner has fought its way to a 13-6 record so far this season, 8-2 in league contests including all of its last six since dropping consecutive matchups at Trinity on December 29, 74-60, and hosting Colorado College December 31, 67-49.
 
The Tigers have won all of the last 15 matchups with the Mountaineers by double-digits, though December's contest in San Antonio was the closest margin since Trinity's 82-72 victory in Kerrville on February 16, 2017.
 
Similar to the Tigers, Schreiner features one player ranked prominently in assists and steals, and another from beyond the arc. Demauria Miles is fifth in NCAA III in made threes (62) and seventh in three-point percentage (44 percent) while Elisa Peralta is 22nd in assists (5.1) and 45th in steals (2.95) per game this season.
 
On the other Tigers: Colorado College will host Schreiner before the second battle of SCAC Tigers commences Sunday afternoon in Colorado Springs. The northern Tigers stand at 13-6 overall with just one loss in SCAC play this season: January 2 at Trinity, 74-63.
 
Since Thanksgiving, Colorado College has posted a 12-2 record and its two losses have come against the two NCAA III programs that have split the top spot in the national rankings for the last three weeks: Christopher Newport paid a visit to Colorado Springs on December 18.
 
The black-and-yellow Tigers rank top-30 in NCAA III in rebounds per game (22nd, 45.5), rebound margin (26th, +9.3) and scoring offense (29th, 74.7). Zoe Tomlinson, NCAA III's eighth-ranked player in field goal percentage, posted a then-career-high 19 rebounds to go with 15 points in the last matchup of SCAC Tigers, only to produce 21 boards against Texas Lutheran two games later and collect January 9's SCAC Player of the Week honor.
 
Looking Ahead: Homeward Bound
 
No. 1/2 Trinity Women's Basketball will return from Colorado Springs Sunday with only home contests left on the current 2022-23 schedule. The Tigers will conclude the 2022-23 regular-season with four straight at home in SCAC play, followed by the 2023 SCAC Championship tournament, also to be held at Trinity.