SAN ANTONIO –Trinity University Men's Basketball went to the wire to down Southwestern University, 76-70, to conclude Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season play Saturday night for Senior Night in Calgaard Gym.
 
The Tigers (19-6, 12-4 SCAC) clinched the league's No. 2 seed in next weekend's home SCAC Championship tournament to advance directly to the event's semifinal action Saturday night.
 
Appropriately so, senior AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) became the 26th player in Trinity Men's Basketball history to reach 1,000 career points as a Tiger as he posted the necessary 10 points in the first half en route to his second 20-point game of the season to lead all players Saturday.
 
Clark joined Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound), Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / Metairie Park) and Griffin Levine (Dallas, Texas / Yavneh) in pre-game recognition of their collegiate careers. Jenkins joined Clark as the only other Tiger in double-digits Saturday with 13 points, his fourth double-digit game in the last six outings.
 
While Trinity held the lead from start to finish, Southwestern had righted its ship to return from a 20-point mid-first half deficit down to just one possession, 53-51, with 9:19 remaining in the contest, which left the Tigers and Pirates to hover around a two-possession margin through to the finish.
 
Trinity Men's Basketball will face the victor of Friday's Southwestern-Centenary College quarterfinal of the 2023 SCAC Championship Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
 
The Rundown
A raucous Bell Center crowd aided as Trinity bounded out to a 13-0 start in less than four minutes. The all-senior starting lineup—completed by sophomore Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian)—collected three times from beyond the arc, twice from Clark including the seal-breaker just 16 seconds after the tip-off. Levine collected the third deepball while Hanley tallied a pair inside as Jenkins assisted on the first two Trinity buckets. A Southwestern three-ball ahead of the first media break slowed the bleeding for the Pirates momentarily.
 
Back to just a nine-point deficit two minutes later, sophomore Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) joined the scoring column with a deep strike of his own to put Trinity up, 18-6, and kickstart a 15-4 run that finished on a successful trip to the free throw line for junior Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis), 30-10 Tigers.
 
In the midst of the breakaway mayhem, Clark became the program's newest member of the 1,000-point club at 11:41 to go in the half, almost directly ahead of the second media timeout. Barry collected six straight points for Trinity to finish the run, just ahead of Brown's foul shots.
 
The margin began to dwindle in the waning minutes of the first half, down to 13 points, 38-25 Trinity, at intermission. After 20 minutes, the Tigers had already forced 14 turnovers led by four steals from Brown. In nine minutes of action, Barry accumulated a 19-point plus/minus as he manned the middle through the breakout run.
 
A Josh Jones three-pointer opened act two and sent the warning shot for the Pirates that the second half was going to be interesting. By the under-16 stoppage, Southwestern had dipped back into a single-digit margin before a Hanley bucket inside returned the Tigers to a 10-point spread, 45-35.
 
The Pirates continued to chip away, coming to their first two-possession deficit since the opening 90 seconds, 53-47, with 10:26 remaining. The Southwestern run continued as two trips down the floor later, the margin slid to just 53-51 now on the other side of the halfway point in the second.
 
The now-restless attendance in Calgaard Gym finally found relief seconds later as Harvey struck again from deep, aided by sophomore Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence) for his third assist. Harvey looked to go alone on the next possession as he collected his second steal on the ensuing Southwestern possession but was denied a strong finish through contact—and a seven-point Tiger lead—as the sophomore was called for a charge.
 
Just ahead of the under-eight media timeout, Clark made good on Harvey's efforts with his third three-pointer of the night to go back up seven points, 61-54, with 7:31 to go. A theme down the stretch, Clark was able to cushion against another Pirate resurgence from the free throw line to mark a 64-61 advantage with exactly five minutes showing on the game clock.
 
A second unfortunate whistle in the late stages came with just over three minutes to play. With Southwestern pinned up against an impending shot clock violation, Clark absorbed contact on a close-out in front of the Pirate bench and was called for a three-shot foul, with just one second left on the 30-second clock. Leo Toussaint converted just two of three from the line, 66-63 Trinity.
 
A long-range strike from Brown doubled the Tiger lead on the next possession, and set the stage for desperation fouling in the final two minutes. Clark collected all of his final eight points in Saturday's contest from the charity stripe, including four in the final 12 seconds to put the game away, 76-70.
 
Up Next
Trinity Men's Basketball will host next weekend's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship tournament, February 24-26. The tournament field has been locked in by Saturday's results across the league as follows:

• No. 1 University of St. Thomas
• No. 2 Trinity University
• No. 3 Centenary College
• No. 4 Colorado College
• No. 5 Schreiner University
• No. 6 Southwestern University

 
Colorado College and Schreiner will open the men's portion of the bracket at 5:00 p.m. Friday, followed immediately by Centenary-Southwestern. While the Trinity women will open Saturday's action with a Noon tip, the Tiger men will be the Saturday nightcap awaiting the Gents or Pirates.
 
SCAC Championship Sunday tips with the women's final at Noon, followed directly by the men's final, optimistically scheduled for 2:00 p.m.