SAN ANTONIO – The No. 6/12 Trinity women's basketball team opened up the home portion of its schedule with an 82-62 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (CA) on Friday night in Calgaard Gymnasium.

The Tigers improved to 3-0 this season with the win, while Claremont fell to 0-2 on the year. Trinity takes a 3-2 edge in the series with CMS, with tonight being the first meeting since the teams split NCAA Playoff meetings in 2016 and 2017.

Jamie Ruede (Pipe Creek, Texas / Boerne) exploded for 21 of her 23 points in the second half, splashing a school-record-tying seven three-pointers in the game to lead the Tigers to victory. Trinity was down one at the half and led by just four (52-48) after the third quarter. Ruede then fueled a 30-point fourth quarter with four of her seven makes from distance in the final period.

Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) added eight points, six assists, and six steals to lead the team in the latter two categories, while Skye O'Rourke (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) came off the bench to grab a team-best nine rebounds in 15 minutes of action.

Natalie Anderson (San Jose, Calif. / Archbishop Mitty) finished with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, as well as hitting 5-for-6 at the foul line. Anderson also added six rebounds and a pair of steals, snagging five of her boards on the offensive glass.

Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) and Kylie Minter (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) chipped in with nine points and two assists each in the game. Napoli added four steals, while Minter grabbed three rebounds and went 5-for-6 at the free throw line.

The Rundown
Trinity started quickly with an 8-0 run just over two minutes into the game, and held a convincing 14-3 advantage at the midway point of the opening quarter. Anderson scored all eight Tiger points with an impressive variety. She began with a layup on a fastbreak, then connected on a three-pointer. Her next shot was a jump shot to close out another fastbreak, then she was fouled and made 1-of-2 at the line. Claremont finally made a run of its own with seven unanswered points to cut the lead to four, but Trinity remained in control and led 23-16 after the first.

The second quarter belonged to Claremont as Trinity struggled to find their rhythm at either end of the floor. The Tigers combined their lowest scoring quarter of the game with the best output of the night for Claremont, pushing the Athenas into the lead. The quarter started with CMS netting eight of the first 10 points to draw within one at 25-24 with just 2:29 elapsed in the period. Trinity answered the initial spurt with back-to-back scores to go back up by five points, but Claremont refused to hand over the momentum. The visitors finally tied things up 34-34 with just over a minute left in the first half, capping a five-point burst that took just seven seconds on the clock. Trinity broke the tie with a bucket on its next possession, but Claremont nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer to take a 37-36 lead into the locker room.

After the break, Trinity flexed its defensive muscles by allowing a game-low 11 points in the third quarter. Neither team had much offensively going early on the period and Claremont was clinging to a three-point lead when Ruede heated up. Her first triple of the night tied the game 41-41 with 4:29 remaining, then she followed a pair of CMS free throws with her second long-range basket to put Trinity in front briefly at 44-43. O'Rourke hit 3-of-4 foul shots after that to help the Tigers keep pace, then Ruede found space once more to break a 47-47 tie with 1:18 to go in the third. All told, her first three-pointer of the night began a 14-7 run to close out the quarter and put Trinity up 52-48 heading into the fourth.

Both teams traded early buckets in the fourth and the lead was just three when Ruede keyed Trinity's best stretch of the night. She doubled the lead to 57-51 with her first three-pointer of the quarter, then hit another to make it a nine-point game less than a minute later. Napoli then began a 12-0 Tiger run with a three-pointer of her own, followed by consecutive layups from Napoli and Anderson. Just when you thought she was done, Ruede came back with another three-pointer to put Trinity up by 70-53 with under seven minutes to go. Anderson finished off the 12 unanswered points with two free throws, then Ruede splashed one more three to answer a CMS free throw to take it to a 21-point lead just past the midway point of the final quarter. All told, her first three-pointer began an incredible 37-14 run for Trinity that included a 21-3 stretch in the fourth quarter alone. 

Coach Speak
"I'm not really a Beach Boys guy, but considering we were playing such a nice group of California Girls, maybe today I can lean in," began Head Coach Cameron Hill. "The game was Fun Fun Fun, lots of Good Vibrations, but somewhere around the second quarter, I couldn't help but think, Wouldn't it Be Nice if we could get a stop!!! In the end, God Only Knows what I'd be without my Together Tigers!!! Very proud of this team and their Don't Worry Baby disposition!!!! ONWARD!!!!"

Up Next
Trinity will run it back tomorrow evening against California Lutheran University at 6:00 p.m., finishing off its opening weekend at home this season.