SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Men's Basketball sits in the 7:00 p.m. timeslot for Saturday's second Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship semifinal as the league's second seed as it prepares for the victor of third-seed Centenary College and sixth-seed Southwestern University in Friday's late quarterfinal competition.
The Tigers (19-6, 12-4 SCAC) were able to clinch the conference's second first-round bye in Saturday's 76-70 victory over the Pirates (10-15, 6-10 SCAC). Had the contest gone sour, Trinity would have needed help from Colorado College (12-13, 9-7 SCAC) the following afternoon; help the Tigers would have received as the black-and-yellow Tigers defeated Centenary (17-8, 10-6 SCAC), 66-55.
The tournament field is completed with 2022-23 regular-season champion No. 12 University of St. Thomas (23-2, 16-0 SCAC) and fifth-seeded Schreiner University (12-13, 6-10 SCAC).
Trinity Men's Basketball will tip-off in the conference tournament Saturday night at 7:00 p.m., with a victory advancing the Tigers into Sunday's 2:00 p.m. final.
On the Court, In the Classroom: Clark, Roberts earn CSC Academic All-District
Senior
AJ Clark (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) and junior
Abdullah Roberts (Houston, Texas / HCYA) were tabbed as Academic All-District recipients from College Sports Communicators (CSC) on Tuesday.
Clark holds a decorated academic career as a member of the Tiger men's program as Tuesday's announcement marked the third selection for the fifth-year wing. In addition, the SCAC has bestowed its Elite 19 award on the Alamo City-native twice along with two appearances on the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court and the SCAC Academic Honor Roll.
No stranger to good grades himself, Roberts collected his first academic honor from the CSC to go along with a pair of SCAC Academic Honor Rolls and three semesters on Trinity's Dean's List.
The pair of Tiger men were joined in Tuesday's announcement by a pair of Tiger women's seniors, Claire Hale and Maggie Shipley.
Record Book Round-Up: Clark Reaches 1,000… What's Next?
Clark forced his way into Trinity's 1,000-point club Saturday night with 10 first-half points against the Pirates, part of his game-high 21-point outing. On top of the scoring, the senior sits third in career assists (372) and steals (170) in program history, within range of being Trinity's runner-up in both categories this weekend.
Senior
Ben Hanley (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) is right on Clark's heels with 341 made field goals for his career, 23
rd all-time, and is currently in line for the program's 15
th-best shooting percentage at 48.2 percent. Hanley is also 16
th in career assists (232), cracked the top-25 in rebounds last weekend (425) and is in the top-25 for shooting percentage in a single season (53.7 percent).
Sophomore
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) continues to have one of the most prolific outside shooting seasons in program history as he scooted into the top-five for a single season with 63 made three-pointers on a top-20 percentage of 42 percent so far this season. The second-year Tiger also holds a 90.9 free throw percentage, good for second in the Trinity record book and nearly 10 percent higher than any other Tiger in the last two decades aside from one: junior
Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) with his 83 percent clip from last season.
Brown has started meeting minimum requirements for Trinity's career records as of late, despite missing a handful of contests in the heart of the 2022-23 campaign. The junior's 78.2 percent free throw rate and 48.5 percent clip from the field sit just outside the program's top 10, in 12
th and 13
th all-time, respectively.
There's No Place Like Home: Trinity to Host First SCAC Championship Since 2013-14
While, technically, Trinity hosted each of its contests in the 2021 league championship as COVID-19 protocols dictated the tournament's separation over three weekends, this weekend will be only the second SCAC Basketball Championship hosted by Trinity, the previous—2013-14—being the last time the Tigers won the conference tournament.
Since then, Trinity Men's Basketball Coach
Jimmy Smith guided a pair of SCAC tournament champs at Texas Lutheran University (2014-15, 2015-16) and have had the Tigers in each of the last two tournament finals. During his three-year tenure in San Antonio, Trinity has amassed a 29-4 record in Calgaard Gym.
Preview: Centenary or Southwestern?
Trinity enters the weekend as the league's leader in scoring offense (78 points per game), steals per game (10.4) and across the board at the free throw line on average (17.8-for-24.7, 72 percent). The Tigers are also runner-up in the SCAC in several categories including field goal percentage (44.2), scoring margin (8.7), turnover margin (2.6) and turnovers forced per game (18.48).
In NCAA III, Harvey's 90.9 free throw percentage ranks fifth while his 42 percent rate from beyond the arc is 27
th.
Clark leads Trinity with 13.7 points, six rebounds and 3.3 assists per game this season as one of four double-digit scorers on average ahead of Harvey (12.5), Brown (11.7) and Hanley (10.1). Clark has seen noticeable help on the glass this season from sophomore
Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) at 5.8 boards per game.
The fifth-year Tiger trails first-year
Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's) in steals this season, 42-39, despite the rookie's 10.2 minutes per game. Fenn is one of only two Trinity players to play in all 25 games this season, the other being sophomore
Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence).
On the Gents: By tip-off of Friday's latter quarterfinal, Centenary will have played just three games over the previous 19 days, though two were two of the toughest road contests in the SCAC: at St. Thomas (Feb. 14; L, 68-55) and at Colorado College (Feb. 19; L, 66-55).
The Gents are the reason for Trinity's runner-up status in the SCAC in the turnover department as they rank eighth in NCAA III in turnovers forced per game (19.88) and 20
th in turnover margin (4.5). Senior Seth Thomas registers on the NCAA III rankings list with six double-doubles this season along with league-best marks in field goal percentage (50.6) and free throws made (120) and is second to Harvey in the SCAC with an 80.5 percent free throw rate.
In his sixth season at the helm for Centenary, Head Coach Chris Dorsey holds an overall record of 83-59 (55-35 SCAC) and led the Gents to the 2020 SCAC tournament title. However, during that span Centenary is just 24-38 in road games and is 1-4 in Calgaard Gym.
On the Pirates: Southwestern will play its fourth contest in Calgaard Gym this season Friday night against the Gents, looking for a fifth. The Pirates' visit Saturday was the first against the Tigers but Southwestern filled out the 2022 Leslie Robinson Christmas Classic as the week's second contest for Geneva College (PA) and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The Pirates battled their way into this year's SCAC tournament with an overtime thriller, 82-77, at Schreiner the day before Trinity's Senior Day victory which set the stage for a de facto play-in game Saturday between the Mountaineers and Texas Lutheran.
In Saturday's regular-season finale, Southwestern collected four double-digit scorers including three from the bench between Zac Black, Josh Jones and Leo Toussaint. None of those three are in the top four in per-game scoring for the Pirates this season, a column co-led by Brock Luechtefeld and Preston Hannah at 9.5 points per game apiece.
A former SCAC Champion himself, Southwestern Head Coach Connor Kuykendall was at the helm for Schreiner's 2018 league title. For better or worse, familiarity looms between the Pirates' and Tigers' coaches as Kuykendall and Smith were teammates on the 2003-04 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor squad and Kuykendall was also on the bench with Smith during his two seasons at the wheel in Kerrville.
Looking Ahead…
Victory for Trinity Men's Basketball Saturday night will put the Tigers in the SCAC Championship game for the third straight season.
The selection show for the 2023 NCAA III Men's Basketball Championship tournament will air Monday, February 27 at Noon CT on NCAA.com.
