SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Men's Basketball returns to the Bell Center this weekend for the first two Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference matchups of a four-game homestand to close the 2022-23 regular season.
The Tigers (15-6, 8-4 SCAC) will host University of Dallas (9-13, 3-10 SCAC) Friday night and Austin College (8-14, 3-10 SCAC) Saturday evening as the second wave of league play continues.
Last week, Trinity took on travel partner Schreiner University (10-11, 4-8 SCAC) and came away from the midweek matchup in Kerrville with a 91-88 thriller led by a season-high 24 points from junior
Tanner Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis). Despite a Brown three-pointer to give the Tigers a 68-67 lead with under a minute to play, Trinity fell to Colorado College Sunday evening.
While No. 12 University of St. Thomas (21-2, 14-0 SCAC) was able to clinch the SCAC's regular-season title last week, the league's second first-round bye for the six-team conference tournament is still very much in play between the SCAC's two sets of Tigers and current two-seed Centenary College (16-6, 10-4 SCAC) as all three sit within two games of each other ahead of the final two weeks.
Trinity Men's Basketball will host Texas Lutheran University (10-11, 5-7 SCAC) and Southwestern University (7-14, 3-9 SCAC) next weekend to conclude the 2022-23 regular season, with the Saturday matchup with the Pirates marked for Senior Day.
Preview: Dallas (Feb. 10; 7:30 p.m.), Austin (Feb. 11; 6:00 p.m.)
Following Sunday's contest, Trinity remains ranked in the top 50 in NCAA III this season in steals per game (28
th, 9.9) and turnovers forced per game (46
th, 17.1) as the Tigers continue to find success through its zone looks.
On the other end, Trinity leads the SCAC in scoring offense (76.5), defensive rebounding (28.29) and across the board at the free throw line with averages of 17 makes and 23.7 attempts at a 71.8 percent clip.
The catalyst to the scoring has been three Tigers averaging double-digits this season, led by sophomore
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) who ranks ninth in free throw percentage (91.1) and 21
st in three-point percentage (43.4) in NCAA III while averaging 13.2 points per game this season. Brown and fellow San Antonio-native
AJ Clark (Johnson HS) join the sophomore with 12.2 and 13.2 points per contest.
Harvey has ascended into the top-10 in program history with 56 three-pointers this season, and his 43.4 percent clip from deep would land 19
th all-time if the season were to end today. His 91.1 percent rate from the charity stripe is second in Trinity's season records by nearly six percent and is within 1.2 percent of the program record that is currently in its 50
th season atop the chart—Randal Pugh, 1973-74.
Clark has landed in double-digits more than any other Tiger this season, having done so in 15 of his 20 appearances this season. In addition, the fifth-year wing is the lead facilitator at 3.5 assists per game and is just one rebound shy of
Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) of the team-high at 6.1 rebounds per contest. For his career, Clark ranks third all-time with 362 assists and t-9
th with 569 rebounds.
Brown has posted three 20-point games since SCAC play began in December, two of which came in the road matchups against the current top two seeds. The junior has collected 10 double-digit performances through 13 appearances that netted more than nine minutes.
First-year
Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's) has entered the season ranks for total steals as he logged his 39
th takeaway in Colorado Springs on Sunday to join a six-way tie for the 20
th spot, a collection that features current Trinity Women's Basketball Head Coach Cameron Hill's 1997-98 season.
On the Crusaders: Despite the 3-10 league record to date, Dallas has tallied two SCAC victories in its last four, ending January with home wins of 57-55 over Austin and 74-69 over Colorado College. The Crusaders had league-wide attention last Saturday as they had St. Thomas on the ropes in Irving, leading much of the contest before the Celts took the final lead change with 91 seconds to go.
Trinity will look to take its fifth straight in the series since February 2020 Friday night after downing Dallas, 75-69, on the road on January 6. While Clark and Harvey each logged a double-digit performance in that contest, it was senior
Griffin Levine (Dallas, Texas / Yavneh) that led the way with 17 points off the bench on a five-of-seven performance from the field in 17 minutes.
The Crusader to watch is undoubtedly junior forward Jack Boyle as he ranks fifth in NCAA III this season with 16 double-doubles including a 10
th-best average of 11.9 rebounds per contest. Boyle was denied a double-double in the last meeting but led the game with 23 points.
On the Kangaroos: Like Dallas, Austin is 3-10 in league play but also collected two SCAC wins in the final three games in January before hosting the conference's current top two seeds last weekend, defeating Texas Lutheran (Jan. 21) on the road, 70-68, and Colorado College (Jan. 29) at home, 79-63.
Trinity can improve to seven straight and nine of the last 10 matchups with a win Saturday night. The Tigers have also won each of the last 13 meetings in San Antonio, a streak that began on January 2, 2011.
Harvey ran away with the game-high in points (19) in this season's first encounter with the SCAC's marsupials with all five made field goals coming in from downtown in his 25 minutes of action. Austin's Jackson Rennie and Tristan Dick—the team's two top scorers this season—registered 12 points apiece to lead the opposition.
Looking Ahead: The 'Staches, The Seniors, The SCAC Tournament
Trinity Men's Basketball will sport the best moustaches it has to offer next Friday as the Tigers host Texas Lutheran, then will recognize its senior class a day later against Southwestern.
The 2023 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship tournament will be held in San Antonio the weekend after, February 24-26.
