SAN ANTONIO – The Trinity University women's basketball team closed out its Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend at home with a 70-59 win over Texas Lutheran University on Saturday night.

The Tigers won their fourth consecutive game and finished off a regular season series sweep of the Bulldogs, having won an 86-76 overtime meeting in Seguin, Texas, earlier this year. Trinity moves to 14-5 overall and 9-1 in the SCAC with the win, while Texas Lutheran drops to 13-5 overall and 6-3 in conference play.

After an extremely low-scoring first half for both teams that had Trinity holding a narrow 24-19 lead, the offenses showed up in the final two quarters as both teams scored 40 or more points in the final 20 minutes.  The Tigers held the visitors to just 33.3% shooting overall and allowed just 7-of-24 shooting (29.2%) from three-point range, while also forcing 19 turnovers. Trinity's offense also hit better than 50% from three-point range and converted 18-of-20 (90%) at the free throw line.

Jamie Ruede (Pipe Creek, Texas / Boerne) led a trio of double-digit scorers for the Tigers with 20 points off the bench, hitting 6-of-11 shots overall and going 3-for-5 from distance. Kylie Minter (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) enjoyed her best game as a Tiger after posting 19 points to go with six rebounds and a pair of steals. Minter made 7-of-10 overall from the floor, which included an outstanding 5-for-7 from three-point range.

Maggie Robbins (Plano, Texas / Plano) also finished with 10 points in the game, adding eight rebounds and four assists to lead the team in both of the latter categories. Robbins also moved into second in Trinity history in career assists, surpassing Jordan Rudd (2017-21) on the all-time list. She is also approaching the number two spot in career steals for the Tigers, needing 15 more to take over second place in that category as well.

Elaine King (Cedar Park, Texas / Cedar Park) also grabbed eight boards to tie Robbins for the team lead, while also notching a pair of blocks. Josie Napoli (Beaverton, Ore. / Valley Catholic) and Bailey Timmons (Argyle, Texas / Argyle) chipped in with nine points each in tonight's win. The duo also finished with three steals each to tie for the team lead and combined to go a perfect 9-for-9 at the foul line.  

The Rundown

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, though Robbins scored the first five points of the game to give Trinity a 5-0 lead. Texas Lutheran finally scored a little more than four minutes into the game, but would not score again until the final 1:33 of the opening quarter. The Tigers had another run of seven straight points to make it a 12-3 lead in the final minutes, then both teams got one final basket to account for an extremely low 14-5 first-quarter score. The two teams went nearly three minutes without scoring again to start the second and Trinity didn't score until Minter knocked down a three-pointer just ahead of the four-minute mark. Texas Lutheran followed Minter's three with an 8-1 run, though, and the Tiger lead was just 18-16 with 1:36 left before the half. Ruede and Timmons both hit from long-range in the final minute-plus, and Trinity took a 24-19 advantage into the locker room.

Texas Lutheran doubled its first-half output in the third quarter alone, but Trinity produced a 20-point quarter of its own to widen the margin to 46-38 by the end of the frame. The Bulldogs were trailing by just three points in the opening minutes of the third, but Ruede and Minter scored 10 of Trinity's next 12 points and the lead blossomed to 11 points (38-27) with 4:23 remaining in the quarter. The visitors cut the lead in half in the final moments of the period, but three different Tiger players went 6-for-6 at the line over the final 1:31 to keep Trinity ahead by eight heading into the final 10 minutes. 

Just over two minutes into the fourth quarter, Texas Lutheran rallied to within four points of the lead when Minter shut the door with consecutive three-pointers that pushed the margin back to double digits at 55-45 with just over six minutes left. The Bulldogs kept coming, though, hitting timely three-pointers and converting foul shots to make it a 58-55 game with 2:50 left. Ruede converted a three-point play on Trinity's next possession, then answered a TLU score with a three-pointer to push the lead back to 64-57 just 47 seconds later. After Robbins picked up a steal on the next possession, Napoli added to the Tiger lead with a bucket of her own with 1:25 left, then Napoli and Ruede went 4-for-4 at the line in the final minute to help seal the Trinity win. After TLU got within three points, the Tiger defense allowed just one more basket for a stretch of nearly three minutes to close the game. Texas Lutheran's only score in the final two minutes came on the final possession, when Trinity had the lead built up to 13 points.

Coach Speak

"All I can say is that it's wild that Rocky wears black-and-gold trunks in his first fight against Clubber Lang," said Head Coach Cameron Hill. "It didn't go well, but it makes sense to me! While Clubber Lang is one of my all-time favorite villains, there was no way he was going to win the rematch because Rocky starts over. Back to the basics. With Apollo by his side, they reconnect with the purity of boxing! And they fall in love to the best soundtrack gem of all time…the EYE OF THE TIGER! ONWARD!"

Up Next

After playing five of its last six games at home, Trinity will hit the road for five of the final six games of the regular season. The Tigers start that streak in Sherman, Texas, taking on Austin College on Friday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m. Trinity faces the University of Dallas the next evening at 6:00 p.m. to close out the weekend.