SAN ANTONIO – Trinity's women's basketball team made the most of its return home on Friday night, producing a decisive 83-39 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over the University of St. Thomas.

The Tigers improved to 11-5 overall and moved into a tie for first in the league standings with a 6-1 conference record. St. Thomas dropped to 4-11 and 2-5 in SCAC with the loss, which is Trinity's seventh straight victory in the series that began with the 2019-20 season.

Trinity held St. Thomas under 10 points in three of the four quarters, scoring 20-plus points in three of those 10-minute periods. The Tiger defense forced 40 turnovers in the game and turned that into 49 points off of those miscues. All 11 Trinity players in the game scored at least two points and 34 of the team's points came from the six players that came off the bench.

Three players scored in double figures in the game, led by Jamie Ruede (Pipe Creek, Texas / Boerne) and her 16 points in 21 minutes of action. Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) added 12 points to go with eight assists and four steals, while Maddie Mueller (Houston, Texas / Concordia Lutheran) led Trinity's bench scoring with 10 points in 10 minutes of play.

Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) tied Napoli for the team lead with eight assists, adding six points, four steals, and seven boards. Robbins and Elaine King (Cedar Park, Texas / Cedar Park) tied for the team lead in rebounds and King also chipped in with six points and three steals. Bailey Timmons (Argyle, Texas / Argyle) added nine points and four rebounds, with Kylie Minter (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) hitting 2-for-3 from three-point range to fuel her eight-point night. Skye O'Rourke (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) finished with six points and six rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench as well.

The Rundown
Trinity opened the game by scoring nine unanswered points and never looked back, with Ruede scoring five of the opening points. Later in the first quarter, the Tigers used a 7-0 run to make it a 16-point lead and the home team led 22-9 after the opening period.  This time it was Minter who did most of the damage with five of the seven straight for the Tigers.

Despite starting with another 9-0 run that made it a 22-point lead, the second quarter was Trinity's lowest-scoring period of the game. The Celts were not able to take advantage of the dip in scoring and only finished with eight points overall in the frame. St. Thomas was held scoreless for nearly five minutes to start the second period, then never got closer that 16 points during the dry spell for the Tigers. Trinity took a 35-17 lead into the locker room at the half and that was as close as the game got the rest of the way.

The second half began with Trinity scoring 10 of the first 12 points to push the lead to 26 (45-19) at the midway point of the third quarter. St. Thomas only managed eight points for the second straight period, while the Tigers widened the lead significantly with its best quarter of the night. The great start eventually led to a great finish as Trinity closed the period with a 12-0 run over the final 3:18 that was only interrupted by a buzzer-beater three-point heave from just inside of half court by the Celts.

The lead eclipsed 40 points early in the fourth as Trinity scored the first seven points of the quarter. Mueller later made two three-pointers in just over a minute to take the lead up to 74-28 with just under five minutes to play. The lead grew as high as 49 during the fourth quarter, as St. Thomas's best quarter (14) was answered by Trinity matching its best total as well (24).  

Coach Speak
"Love it or hate it, The Wolf of Wall Street had some real life lessons tucked into the riveting storyline," said Head Coach Cameron Hill. "Early in the film Jordan Belfort is bent out of shape over a 'bad' article that was written about him. That article turned out to be the key to his kingdom. And his wife, before The Duchess, told him 'there is no such thing as bad press!' Basketball is the same – there is no such thing as a bad game. Win or lose, we have to be driven enough to use it the right way. We did that tonight. Tomorrow is another great opportunity to CLOSE! Onward!"

Up Next
Trinity faces off against Centenary College (LA) tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. to close out the conference weekend of play.