SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Men's Basketball will host Texas Lutheran University (Fri.) and Southwestern University (Sat.) for the final weekend of the 2022-23 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season, and the second half of its current four-game homestand.
 
The Tigers (17-6, 10-4 SCAC) inherited the second spot in the current SCAC standings last night as Centenary College (17-7, 10-5 SCAC) fell to No. 12 University of St. Thomas (22-2, 15-0 SCAC), 68-55, in Houston. Both the first-seed Celts and third-seed Gents will finish off their regular seasons at current fourth-seed Colorado College (11-12, 8-6 SCAC) Friday and Sunday, respectively.
 
Both the Bulldogs (10-13, 5-9 SCAC) and Pirates (9-14, 5-9 SCAC) are in a three-way tie for fifth in the league alongside Trinity's travel partner, Schreiner University (11-12, 5-9 SCAC), which puts the Tigers up against a pair of squads this weekend with their backs against the wall.
 
Trinity rebounded for a pair of decisive victories last weekend defined by landslide second-half runs against University of Dallas and Austin College. The Tigers dropped streaks of 20-3 on the Crusaders Friday night and 34-10 on the Kangaroos Saturday.
 
Trinity Men's Basketball will host the 2023 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship tournament next weekend, February 24-26. Four teams—St. Thomas, Trinity, Centenary and Colorado College—have punched a ticket into the six-team event while four more—Schreiner, Texas Lutheran, Southwestern and Austin—will jockey for the remaining two spots this weekend.
 
SCAC Player of the Week: AJ Clark
Senior AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) was named the conference's Player of the Week as he averaged 18.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in last weekend's outings including a 61.1 percent clip from the field and 81.3 percent from the line. The fifth-year leads Trinity in all three categories this season with 13.5 points, six rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
 
Senior Day (Feb. 18 v. Southwestern)
Ahead of Saturday's regular-season finale, Trinity Men's Basketball will honor four members in Senior Day celebration. The fifth-years, Clark and Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound), will be recognized alongside Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / Metairie Park) and Griffin Levine (Dallas, Texas / Yavneh).
 
'Stachey Friday (Feb. 17 v. Texas Lutheran)
A 15-year tradition continues for the Tigers this Friday as the players will line up their best moustaches for the matchup with the Bulldogs. Typically, 'Stachey Friday is the final Friday home game of the regular season, though last year's came on Saturday, February 5 in a 92-73 victory over Centenary.
 
The current senior class has never lost a 'Stachey Friday, having won all three by double-digits.

• February 1, 2019 vs. Austin; W, 81-71
• February 7, 2020 vs. Dallas; W, 81-68
• The February 12, 2021 contest with Austin was cancelled due to inclement weather, the week prior to the statewide snowstorm that winter

 
Leaving a Mark: Clark, Hanley Register in Career Records; Harvey Rises in Season Ranks
Entering the final regular season weekend, Clark sits 20 points away from becoming the 26^th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and the 14^th to do so in the SCAC era (1991-present).
 
Clark is also climbing the charts in rebounds (581) and assists (367), on pace to reach as high as sixth all-time on the boards and second in assists. The San Antonio-native also sits third all-time with 165 steals.
 
Hanley has registered on the all-time ranks for rebounds (420) and assists (230) as well but his best mark is his career field goal percentage (48 percent) which ranks 14^th all-time if it were to hold.
 
Sophomore Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) is in line for a historically-impressive season as he sits sixth all-time with 60 made three-pointers this season and is second in free throw percentage at 90.9 percent.
 
Preview: Texas Lutheran and Southwestern
On the Bulldogs: Texas Lutheran will look to snap a six-game SCAC losing streak Friday night in its visit to San Antonio. The Bulldogs are 2-8 in conference games since the start of 2023, including the last matchup with Trinity in Seguin, 74-64, in favor of the Tigers.
 
In the last matchup, sophomore Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) posted one of the best rebounding performances for the Tigers in the last two decades, pulling down 16 rebounds on top of 14 points for his first career double-double. TLU's Riley Fornerette led the game with 17 points, just ahead of sophomore Jacob Millhouse's (Plano, Texas / Independence) career-high 16 points.
 
Last year's matchup in San Antonio is the only loss for the Tigers in the last six matchups with the Bulldogs as Trinity fell, 69-67, in the final seconds.
 
On the Pirates: The recent fall of TLU coincides with a resurgence for Southwestern as the Pirates have won four of their last six in SCAC play with the two losses coming in the Centenary/St. Thomas road weekend to end January.
 
Trinity has won four of the last five matchups with Southwestern including this season's victorious trip to Georgetown, 63-50, on January 14. The Tigers forced the Pirates to just a 31.4 percent clip from the field on top of just 50 points while Harvey went six-for-11 overall and nine-of-nine from the free throw line for 24 points.
 
Looking Ahead: The 2023 SCAC Championship (Feb. 24-26)
Trinity Men's Basketball will play host to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament next weekend, February 24-26, welcoming the top six seeds from the regular-season standings to the Alamo City.