Box Score KERRVILLE, Texas – The No. 1/2 Trinity women's basketball team improved to 20-0 this season with a 71-60 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference road win over Schreiner on Wednesday night.
The Tigers finished off a regular season series sweep with tonight's win, after also defeating Schreiner 74-60 in San Antonio just over a month ago. Trinity has won 42 consecutive regular season games overall and 16 in a row against the Mountaineers. The Tigers are 25-4 in the SCAC era (since 1991-92) against Schreiner.
With just a four-point lead at halftime, Trinity used an 18-7 third quarter to build a comfortable lead. The Tiger defense forced 29 turnovers and held Schreiner under 30% shooting from three-point range and under 34% overall in the game.
Three Trinity scorers reached double figures in tonight's game, led by an 18-point night from
Ashlyn Milton (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo). Milton continues to extend her school record for career three-pointers, adding four more in tonight's game, as well as collecting four rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Addie Putnam (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Xavier College Prep) and
Claire Hale (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) added 15 and 10 points, respectively, and combined for 15 rebounds in the game. Putnam hit 5-of-10 from the field that included two of her four attempts from distance, while Hale enjoyed a 4-for-8 shooting night. Putnam led the team with eight rebounds to edge her teammate for the lead.
Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) was holding four-of-a-kind at the end of the night, finishing with six points, six rebounds, six assists, and six steals in the win – with the latter two totals leading all players in tonight's game.
Trinity will be back in action on Sunday at Colorado College in a matchup between the top two teams in the SCAC so far this season. The only SCAC loss for Colorado College this season came at the hands of Trinity and the CC Tigers will take a six-game winning streak into the weekend. The game that could determine the top seed at the SCAC Tournament is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. (MT) tip in Colorado Springs.
The Rundown
After Schreiner got the first bucket of the game, Putnam scored five points of seven unanswered to give Trinity the early advantage. Schreiner battled back to knot things up 9-9 with just under four minutes left in the opening quarter, but Trinity finished with another flurry to take a 16-11 lead after one.
Milton scored five of Trinity's first seven points to open the second quarter and the Tigers snagged their first double-digit lead of the game at 23-11. The lead was still double figures at the midway point of the quarter, but Schreiner managed to storm back late, cutting the margin to just one point (30-29) with under a minute to play. The Tigers got the final three points, though, taking a narrow four-point lead into halftime.
The third quarter was the turning point of the game for the Tigers, beginning with an 11-2 run that pushed the lead to 44-31 less than four minutes into the period. Hale started the run with an offensive rebound and a put back, then finished it with a three-point play. The lead was double figures the rest of the quarter and Trinity scored the final five points to take a 51-36 lead into the final 10 minutes.
The largest lead of the game came less than three minutes into the fourth quarter as
Emily Nelson (Sugar Land, Texas / Saint Agnes Academy) hit a pair of free throws to make it a 58-40 game. Schreiner had one final run in them, cutting the lead in half with nine straight points over the next three-plus minutes. Napoli and Milton both hit three-pointers in a span of just over a minute after that, stretching the lead to 16 points (66-50) with just 2:26 remaining – effectively sealing the win as Schreiner never got closer than 12 points until a three-point play with less than a second left to close the game.
Numbers to Note
Nelson and
Maggie Shipley (Arlington, Va. / Yorktown) led the bench scoring with 17 total points in the game. Both players also chipped in with three rebounds and two assists.
Milton now has 56 three-pointers made this season, tying for the sixth-most in school history. Last year, she broke the single season record with 78 threes
Coach Speak
"Gotta shout out the men tonight," said Head Coach
Cameron Hill. "Huge road win for them and total team effort. No mater what happened they played like they couldn't lose. Must be something to having a Tanner on the team. I mean, the Bad News Bears had a very similar disposition. Tanner is a 70s legend because at 11 years old and 65 pounds, he feared no man. That was them tonight. Super proud!!! We also won."
Up Next
Trinity resumes SCAC play on Sunday at Colorado College, beginning at 1:00 p.m. (MT). The game will be the final road game of the regular season for Trinity, which returns home Friday, February 10, to face the University of Dallas in the first of four straight home games in advance of the SCAC Championship Tournament. The Tigers will also serve as hosts of the conference tournament this year, beginning Friday, February 24.
