SAN ANTONIO – The Tiger men's basketball team scored a 67-54 win over Centenary College in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Semifinals on Saturday night, earning a spot in the SCAC Tournament Championship game on Sunday afternoon.

Trinity improved to 20-6 with the win, while Centenary fell to 17-9 this season. The Tigers and Gents split the regular season series between the two teams, but Trinity took tonight's rubber match that puts the Tigers into the final.

Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) led Trinity with 16 points in tonight's game, including a pair of late three-pointers to help seal the victory. Brown just missed a double-double with a team-leading nine rebounds.

Kaleb Jenkins (New Orleans, La. / Metairie Park) and Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) scored 15 points each to round out Trinity's double-figure scorers. The trio accounted for 46 of Trinity's 67 points scored as a team. Jenkins nailed all three of his attempts from distance and 6-of-9 at the foul line, adding six boards and four steals.

Trinity forced 20 turnovers as a team and had a decided 26-2 edge in scoring off of turnovers in the game. The Tiger defense also held Centenary under 30 percent shooting from three-point range, while connecting on 11-of-24 (45.8%) long-range shots themselves.

The Tigers will face off against fifth-seeded Schreiner University in tomorrow's SCAC Championship game. Schreiner upset top seed St. Thomas in tonight's first semifinal game. The teams are scheduled to play for the conference title at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, following the women's championship.

The Rundown
Though the Calgaard Gym crowd came prepared, Harvey and Brown still brought the call to action as they recorded two of the four consecutive made three-pointers between the two squads to open the day's final SCAC postseason bout. A third straight Centenary make from deep set up the brief three-point lead for the Gents at 14:40 on the clock.
 
Clark answered immediately as the third different Tiger to collect from long range in the first three made attempts from the field for Trinity, then logged his second steal in the first six minutes on the ensuing Centenary possession, only to come up empty in transition to leave the game tied, and the door cracked open for the Gents to mark their final lead, 13-11, with 13:52 to go in the first.
 
Let the deep shots continue: Harvey opened the floodgates the next time down the floor with his second three-ball to kickstart a 14-2 run in the heart of the half. During the run, Jenkins collected twice from distance to go with another from sophomore Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence), 25-15 Trinity.
 
The aerial assault continued through the final minutes of the first half, leading to the Tigers' nine-of-16 line from beyond the arc through the first 20 minutes. Jenkins was a perfect three-for-three to compliment Harvey's three-of-four as five Trinity players collected from outside. Jenkins led the way handily at the half with 13 points ahead of Harvey's nine and Centenary's Jalen Behr with eight.
 
Brown notched the lone 20-point margin directly out of the halftime break on a pull-up inside the free throw line, 44-24 Tigers though the offense was quieted over the next four minutes for a 12-0 Gents run heading into the first media stoppage of act two, a Trinity timeout. Seth Thomas and Tykeem Singleton evenly split the run as Singleton began to answer the long-range call from the Tigers with a pair for outside.
 
Harvey cracked into double-digits after the 75-second intervention to break up the drought and return to a double-digit advantage, 46-36 with 14:11 to play. Sophomore Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) broke into the scoring column after foul trouble left the Trinity centerpiece on the sideline much of the first half, followed by buckets from Brown and Harvey for an 8-0 response right at 10 minutes remaining.
 
Centenary drew back to within seven points, 53-46, as Thomas began to take over for Centenary, scoring three straight trips down the floor to push his total to 17 points with 7:21 to go. Trinity would return to a double-digit margin for the duration two minutes later as Brow made good on a Barry steal with yet another deep strike, 57-46 at 5:16. Harvey's free throw ahead of Brown's make marked the end of the sophomore's scoring for the night with nearly seven minutes left.
 
Jenkins was the second to reach and settle for 15 points, also at the charity stripe, on the other side of the final scheduled stoppage. Brown one-upped both with Trinity's 11^th and final deep ball with 79 seconds left on the clock to ice the second SCAC semifinal matchup.

Coach Speak
"What a win," exclaimed Head Coach Jimmy Smith after the Tiger victory. "It was a great atmosphere tonight and I thought the guys played well. We had a huge emphasis on winning the turnover and rebounding battle and we did! I hope everyone comes out tomorrow!!"

Up Next
Trinity will host Schreiner in the SCAC Championship game at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. This marks the third straight time the Tigers have advanced to the finals, but Trinity is seeking its first SCAC Championship since 2014.