SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Men's Basketball leapt past Austin College, 98-61, at Calgaard Gym Saturday night in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.
The Tigers (17-6, 10-4 SCAC) move into a tie for the second seed in the upcoming SCAC Championship with the victory as Centenary College (17-6, 10-4 SCAC) sat idle in its conference schedule this week.
The fifth-years,
AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) and
Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) put on a clinic for Trinity as they finished with 19 and 17 points, respectively as the only two Tigers in double-digits though all 18 active players hit the floor in the contest with 10 playing more than 10 minutes.
Efficiency and ball security were the ultimate influences in Saturday's contest as the Tigers committed only nine turnovers—two fewer than any other game this season—while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, led in large part by the combined 14-for-21 performance from Clark and Hanley.
On top of 10 points each from the fifth-years, Trinity notched strong second-half performances from a pair of sophomores in
Nate Thompson (Austin, Texas / Bowie) with six points and six rebounds—both career highs—and
Pierce Mathews (Cypress, Texas / Cy Woods) with a career-high seven points in less than four minutes.
Trinity Men's Basketball will host Texas Lutheran University (Feb. 17) and Southwestern University (Feb. 18) to conclude the 2022-23 regular season next weekend. Saturday's matchup with the Pirates will be the program's Senior Day while the Tigers will get lined up with their best moustaches for the Bulldogs on Friday.
The Rundown
After a brief stint playing from behind in the first three minutes, the Tigers left behind the final tied score less than five minutes in. Trinity rattled off a 16-4 run in five minutes on the game clock, powered by four points each from Louisianians senior
Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / Metairie Park) and first-year
Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's), 25-13 just past the midway point in the half.
The Kangaroos battled back toward the latter stages of the first half, drawing within seven points, 34-27, with 2:12 to go. Back-to-back scoring trips from Clark immediately had the Tigers back to a double-digit lead, but an Ocie Berry and-one left the halftime tally, 40-30.
While Clark and Hanley had both made strides toward their eventual totals with nine and seven points at intermission, sophomore
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) found himself between the fifth-years with eight points via a pair of three-pointers and a successful trip to the free throw line. Clark and Jenkins had carried the bulk of the rebounding effort with five and four boards, respectively.
Hanley grabbed Calgaard Gym's attention after the break as he reached double-digits on a three from the right corner. The very next possession, Clark drove inside to go up 45-30 less than a minute into the second period.
Clark's final bucket came with 10:07 remaining to mark the first 20-point advantage as the Tigers began to break away. The Trinity barrage began just 90 seconds earlier after the under-12 media break the next nine minutes of the contest produced a 34-10 knockout of Austin.
Toward the end of the run, Mathews emerged to drop in seven points in less than 90 seconds as his final point from the charity stripe with 2:20 to go marked the Tigers' largest lead, 96-58. After only being allowed three minutes on the floor in the first half due to foul trouble early, junior
Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) was able to get in on the breakaway action with five points.
Coach Speak
"True team effort tonight," Head Coach
Jimmy Smith said. "Everyone came in and contributed; it was a lot of fun to see everyone so focused."
Up Next
Trinity Men's Basketball concludes the 2022-23 regular season next weekend hosting Texas Lutheran and Southwestern as the race for the second first-round bye in the 2023 SCAC Championship tournament remains up for grabs.
The 2023 SCAC Championship tournament will be hosted by Trinity in San Antonio, February 24-26.
