SAN ANTONIO – The 22nd-ranked Tiger men's basketball team wrapped up its first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend at home with a convincing 87-52 win over the University of Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
Trinity remained undefeated this season with a 9-0 record, which includes four straight wins to open up conference play. The Crusaders dropped to 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the SCAC with the loss, which is the sixth straight loss for Dallas at the hands of the Tigers. Trinity also improves to 24-2 at home in the series.
The Tigers forced 23 turnovers in the game and held Dallas to just 31% (22-for-71) shooting overall and 18.2% (4-for-22) from three-point range. Trinity picked up 46 points in the paint and 20 points off of turnovers, hitting just under 44% from the field (31-of-71).
Two Trinity players reached double digits in scoring, though 13 different players scored in the game and 16 players saw action in the lopsided win.
Christian Green (San Antonio, Texas / Veterans Memorial) led the way with 22 points in just 22 minutes of action, hitting 10-for-17 from the floor. He also added four rebounds and tied for the team lead with four assists.
Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) also notched 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting overall that included 4-for-5 from downtown.
Ty Williams (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) came off the bench with nine points in just 11 minutes to match the scoring output of
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave).
Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence) chipped in with eight points and tied Green for the Tiger lead with four assists.
Nate Thompson (Austin, Texas / Bowie) scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in just six minutes, while
Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) pulled down a team-leading eight boards. Trinity never trailed the entire game, opening its scoring with the first of two three-pointers on the night for Millhouse. The game was tied 8-8 when the Tigers scored 16 of the next 21 points to take its first big lead, 24-13 with 11:23 left in the half. Brown scored nine straight Trinity points during the run, hitting three of his four three-point field goals in less than 90 seconds.
Dallas shaved a few points off the lead, but Williams scored six straight Trinity points to take the lead back to double digits at 31-19. The Crusaders were down 10 (38-28) with 4:05 left in the period, but the Tigers didn't allow another point in the period, and a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Harvey completed an 11-0 run to finish off the first and give Trinity a 49-28 lead at the break. The 11-0 run to close the first continued into the second and eventually became a streak of 26 straight Trinity points that made it a 64-28 game with 14:23 to play. Dallas never got closer than 30 points the rest of the way as the Tigers cruised to victory.
Coach Speak
"Couldn't be prouder of this group," exclaimed Head Coach
Jimmy Smith. "They did a great job executing today. We are excited to host another Leslie Robinson Classic with some great teams coming to San Antonio next week!"
Up Next
Trinity will host the Leslie Robinson Holiday Classic next week, featuring five games over two days in Calgaard Gym. The Tigers will open the tournament against Washington & Lee University (VA) on Wednesday, December 20, at 2:00 p.m. The University of St. Thomas (TX) and Luther College (IA) will finish off the first day's action, then St. Thomas takes on Washington & Lee to begin Thursday's slate of three games. Southwestern University (TX) faces Luther on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. The Tigers close out the week by hosting the University of Chicago at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
