SAN ANTONIO – The seventh-ranked Tiger men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season in Friday night's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference action, as the University of St. Thomas escaped with a narrow 66-65 victory.

Trinity (15-1, 6-1 SCAC) had its 15-game winning streak to start the season snapped by the Celts, who improve to 14-2 overall and are now tied with the Tigers with a 6-1 conference record. St. Thomas has won each of the last four meetings with Trinity, though tonight was the smallest margin of victory for either team in the series that dates back to the 2019-20 season.

Down six points with just over a minute left, the Tigers rallied to take the lead with just over 15 seconds left as Dean Balo (Dallas, Texas / JJ Pearce) swished a go-ahead three-pointer. St. Thomas was able to regain the lead with a bucket of its own with just 3.0 seconds to play, prompting a final timeout for Trinity. Christian Green (San Antonio, Texas / Veterans Memorial) caught the ensuing inbounds pass that traveled nearly the entire length of the court. He found Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) for the final shot, but the ball rimmed out, and St. Thomas got the win.

The game was close throughout with 13 ties and 15 lead changes. The Tigers shot better than 53% from the field in the game, while also limiting St. Thomas to under 40% shooting. However, Trinity also committed 22 turnovers, struggled to shoot from beyond the arc, and also hit just over 50% from the foul line.

Green led Trinity with 22 points on a red-hot 10-for-12 performance from the field, adding four rebounds and a team-best five assists. Balo was Trinity's only other player in double figures, scoring 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting that included the go-ahead three-pointer in the final seconds. Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence) added eight points, while Harvey chipped in with nine. Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) led the Tigers with 12 rebounds to go with six points scored, while Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's) recorded four steals and four points in 13 minutes off the bench.

The Rundown
In an extremely low-scoring first half, neither team led by more than four points the entire period, and that margin only came due to five straight points by St. Thomas in the final two minutes before the half. Trinity was able to break the streak up with the last basket of the period to make it a 28-26 lead for UST heading into the locker room.

Both teams scored much more efficiently in the second half, and St. Thomas got started with two quick buckets to start the final period. The lead got as high as seven points, but Trinity battled back to tie things up 44-44 at the 12-minute mark. Harvey gave the Tigers a brief lead with a three-pointer shortly after that, but the Celts answered with a four-point play to go back in front.

Trinity and St. Thomas traded the lead and tied the game multiple times after that and things were still knotted up at 55-55 at the five-minute mark. Barry gave the Tigers a slim lead by hitting 1-of-2 at the line, but St. Thomas answered with two foul shots and a bucket of its own to make it a 59-56 game just over two minutes later. That lead eventually grew to six as St. Thomas scored seven unanswered and led 62-56 with 1:13 to play.

Green got the Tiger rally going with a quick bucket, then Fenn stole the ball on the inbounds and found his way to the rim for another score to make it a two-point game just seconds later. Fenn got another steal as he forced a jump ball on the ensuing inbounds pass, but Trinity missed a chance to tie with a turnover of its own. An immediate foul with just under 41 seconds left put the Celts back on the line, and two free throws made it a 64-60 advantage. Green scored on another quick layup, then the Tigers nearly forced another turnover on the inbounds. The loose ball went off of Trinity and St. Thomas got the ball on the sideline. However, the Celts lost track of the time and failed to get the ball across half court before a 10-second violation put the ball back to Trinity with 24 seconds left.
That set up the final sequence for Balo's go-ahead triple, as Green drove into a congested lane and kicked it out to his fellow first-year for the dramatic shot. The Celts got the ball in cleanly this time around and eventually found the game-winning layup. Trinity had a decent look in its final shot, as Green made a contested catch on the long pass, and quickly got rid of it to Harvey just in front of the Tiger bench. The dramatic finish for the home team fell just short, though, and St. Thomas pulled it off in the end.  

Coach Speak
"Always stinks to lose," admitted Head Coach Jimmy Smith. "I'm proud of the guys for the amazing win streak that we had and I'm also proud of them for fighting back to give us a chance to win at the end tonight. No time to feel sorry for ourselves, though, as we have another tough test tomorrow."

Up Next
Trinity will be back in action tomorrow night for another tough SCAC matchup, facing off against Centenary College (LA) at 4:00 p.m.