SAN ANTONIO – The No. 4/5 Trinity women's basketball team will compete in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament this weekend to determine this year's conference champion and automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers received a bye as the top seed and the 2023 SCAC Regular Season Champion, which means that the team will skip the first round of action on Friday afternoon. Trinity finished the season with a 24-1 overall record and a 15-1 mark in league play. It is just the second time in school history that a Tiger team has finished the regular season with just one loss, matching the 24-1 record of the 2016-17 squad.

Trinity closed out the year with wins over Texas Lutheran University and Southwestern University. Friday's game against TLU came down to the final seconds and junior Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) picked up a loose ball around midcourt, raced to the basket and scored with just 3.1 seconds left to lift the Tigers to a 61-59 win. Saturday's game against Southwestern was a blowout win that ended up being Trinity's fifth 100-point game of the year and the sixth time the team has won by 50 or more points.

NCAA III Polls: WBCA and D3hoops.com
Trinity remained fourth in this week's Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll, while the Tigers dropped back a spot in the D3hoops.com rankings this week. The three remaining undefeated teams in NCAA III (Christopher Newport University, Transylvania University, and University of Scranton) rank ahead of Trinity in both polls, while Smith College edged in front for fourth place in the D3hoops.com poll.

Honors and Awards: Academic All-District
Tiger seniors Claire Hale (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) and Maggie Shipley (Arlington, Va. / Yorktown) were both selected for the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team this week. The Trinity duo will now be eligible for the Academic All-America award released by the organization in the coming weeks. This marks the first such honor for either player.

NCAA III Regional Rankings
Trinity remains the top team in Region 10 in the rankings released by the NCAA this week, while fellow SCAC school Colorado College is fourth with its 18-7 record. Hardin-Simmons is ranked second behind the Tigers, followed by Puget Sound. East Texas Baptist is fifth, then Mary Hardin-Baylor makes it three American Southwest Conference teams on the list in sixth. UC-Santa Cruz holds the seventh spot in the ranking this week. Trinity handed Hardin-Simmons its only two losses earlier this year, while the Tigers also defeated Puget Sound and Mary Hardin-Baylor during the non-conference schedule. Trinity split with Colorado College in SCAC play, with the CC Tigers giving the TU Tigers their only loss of the regular season.

Milestones and Notes
Robbins and Ashlyn Milton (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo) continue to climb up the list of statistical records at Trinity. Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) also joined the group this week, while Shipley is approaching a career milestone on the court to go with her classroom accolades.

Robbins moved up to a tie for sixth in Trinity single season history for assists, entering the weekend just 13 assists shy of the school record and a mere seven helpers from a tie for second place. She also became the second player ever to record 100 or more steals in a single season, finishing last weekend with 104 total this year. On the career front, Robbins needs just one more to become the eighth player ever at Trinity to top 200 steals in a career. She is 12 away from moving into a spot in the top five all-time.

Already the school's record-holder with 78 three-pointers made last season, Milton also became the only player ever at Trinity to make 60 or more threes in more than one season. She begins the weekend 17 shy of breaking her own record in the category. Milton could also become just the 10th player ever to record 70 or more steals in a season (including Robbins), needing just six more to move her way further up the list. Milton's career point total to this point leaves her 23 points shy of becoming the 12th player to reach 1,200 points for the Tiger program.

Napoli connected on her 40th three-pointer of the season, which puts her in the top 25 in school history for a single season. She is also shooting just over 90% from the free throw line this year for the Tigers – a percentage that would break the school record set 20 years ago by Allison Wooley in 2002-03.

Shipley has averaged in double figures each of the last two seasons at Trinity and she is on the verge of reaching 1,000 points for her career. She has scored 965 total points in college, with 755 of them coming in a Tiger uniform.

Preview: SCAC Tournament
Trinity clinched the top seed at the SCAC Tournament for the seventh consecutive season and for the 11th time overall in school history. With the top seed, the Tigers received a first-round bye that puts the team into the Semifinals for the 11th straight year and the 18th time overall. Trinity will be playing for the chance to reach the finals for the 11th consecutive time as well and for the 16th time overall since 2003. The Tigers have won eight SCAC Tournament titles, including each of the past two conference championships.

The tournament will begin with No. 4 seed Texas Lutheran against No. 5 seed Dallas at Noon on Friday, with the winner advancing to face Trinity in the first Semifinal game at Noon on Saturday. The Championship game will be at Noon on Sunday.

Trinity swept both Texas Lutheran and Dallas during the regular season. The Tigers earned 11-point wins against both teams on the road. The Bulldogs also nearly pulled off an upset win in the final regular season weekend, but ultimately fell by two points. The Crusaders were defeated 109-47 in San Antonio earlier this month. Colorado College is the second seed at the tournament and will also receive a first-round bye. The winner between No. 3 seed Schreiner and No. 6 seed St. Thomas will take on Colorado College on Saturday after Trinity's game.

Texas Lutheran comes in as the top team in the conference in scoring defense, allowing 56.5 points/game. Trinity (59.8/game) and Colorado College (60.0) are close behind in second and third. Trinity is the top scoring offense in the conference and the fourth-best in all of NCAA III at 87.2 points/game. Colorado College and Schreiner are second and third in scoring offense in the league.

Colorado College split with Trinity and also lost to Texas Lutheran during the regular season and the loss to the Bulldogs kept them from tying for the top record in the league this year. Schreiner's only SCAC losses came to Trinity and Colorado College. Texas Lutheran lost to both Trinity and Schreiner by just two points in the final weekend of the regular season. The Bulldogs split with St. Thomas and Colorado College, but swept Dallas in the regular season. The Crusaders were swept by the top four teams in the tournament, but swept St. Thomas in their two meetings this year.

Looking Ahead: NCAA Selection Show
The winner of Sunday's SCAC Championship game will receive an automatic invitation to the NCAA III Championship Tournament. The full field of participants will be announced on NCAA.com at 2:30 p.m. (ET) on Monday, February 27.