GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Trinity men's basketball team opened up its 2023-24 season with an 86-58 victory against Whitman College (WA) on Saturday afternoon on the campus of Southwestern University.
The Tigers won their opening game of the year for the third straight season, while Whitman fell to 1-2 to start the year. Whitman led 34-33 at the break, but Trinity exploded for 53 second-half points, keyed by 46% (17-for-37) shooting from the field and 79% (15-of-19) from the foul line. The Tiger defense also held Whitman to just 33.3% (10-of-30) shooting in the second half and only 2-of-13 (15.4%) from three-point range.
Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) led three Tiger players in double figures in the game, scoring a game-high 15 points courtesy of a 7-for-8 clip at the line.
Christian Green (San Antonio, Texas / Veterans Memorial) hit 4-for-9 from the field and 5-for-6 at the line on his way to 13 points in his Tiger debut. Both Green and Barry also tied for the team lead with seven rebounds.
Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) matched Green with 4-of-9 shooting in the game and rounded out Trinity's double-digit scorers with 12 points in the game. Brown also added five boards and three steals.
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) chipped in with eight points and a pair of steals.
Dean Balo (Dallas, Texas / JJ Pearce) paced Trinity's bench scoring, finishing with nine points and pulling down three offensive boards. The Tiger bench tallied 33 total points in the game with
Ty Williams (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) added seven more to give the Trinity duo half of the scoring by the subs.
The Rundown
Barry kept the Tigers in the game early by scoring six of the team's first eight points and the game was knotted 8-8 just over five minutes into the opening period. Neither team led by more than four points in the opening half of play, as the two traded punches and counter-punches for 20 minutes. Whitman closed the half with back-to-back scores that turned a three-point Trinity lead into a one-point deficit at the break.
At the 15:46 mark in the second period, Trinity made the first significant run of the game by scoring 10 straight points to take a 51-41 lead just under three minutes later. Green scored six of the 10 points on his own and Brown finished the run with a three-pointer.
Whitman never got closer than seven points the rest of the way, but Trinity made sure to close out the win with another huge run. The lead was still 10 with 8:49 left when the Tigers turned on the afterburners with 12 unanswered points to take the lead to 74-52. Overall, Trinity outscored Whitman 45-17 over the final 15:46 of the game to take the win.
Coach Speak
"Great effort by the entire team today against a really good Whitman team," said Head Coach
Jimmy Smith. "I thought the quality of our depth showed today, particularly in the second half when we were able to stretch it out a little. Excited for the challenge tomorrow against Claremont."
Up Next
Trinity will close out its first weekend of the season by taking on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Sunday, November 19, at 1:00 p.m.
