COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The 11th-ranked Tiger men's basketball team opened the 2024-25 season with a 99-82 victory over Bethany Lutheran College (MN) at Reid Arena on Friday night.

Trinity wins the first game of the season for the fourth consecutive year under Head Coach Jimmy Smith, rallying from a 47-44 halftime deficit with a 55-point second half. The Tigers shot better than 60% from the field and 50% (6-for-12) from three-point range in the second half and hit 51.0% (26-of-51) of their shots overall.

Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) led the game with 26 points in the game, hitting 5-of-11 from distance and going a perfect 9-for-9 at the line. He was one of four Tigers to reach double figures in scoring and he had nearly half of the team's 13 three-pointers in the game. Dean Balo (Dallas, Texas / JJ Pearce) finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go with nine rebounds.
Christian Green (San Antonio, Texas / Veterans Memorial) notched a double-double in today's season opener, finishing with 11 points and a game-best 10 boards. Ty Williams (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) led a group of 11 subs with an 11-point night, going 3-for-3 from the field and 4-for-4 at the line in his 12 minutes on the court.

Trent Medearis (Buda, Texas / Hays) scored eight points off the bench in his Trinity debut, while Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's) and Carter Ruck (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) had three assists each to lead the team. Fenn also had a team-leading three steals and Medearis added a couple of steals of his own in the game.

The Rundown
Both teams showed some signs of early rust on offense to start the game, as a solitary free throw was the only point for nearly three minutes. Harvey hit his first three of the game to start a five-point swing for Trinity, but the Vikings tied things up 15-15 with just under 13 minutes left in the first half. Bethany Lutheran came out of the under-12 media timeout and hit three unanswered three-pointers to take a 27-19 lead.

The lead was still eight with just over seven minutes remaining in the period when the Tigers put together a 10-3 run that included two three-pointers from Harvey and made it a 32-31 game just over a minute later. The teams traded leads and ties over the final five minutes of the first half, but Bethany Lutheran knocked down a three-pointer in the final minute to take the 47-44 lead at the break.

Harvey erased that lead with a three-pointer to open the second half, but Bethany Lutheran was back in front with back-to-back buckets after that. Green got a dunk to cut that lead in half, then Harvey sank two foul shots, and the game was tied once again. Harvey hit another triple two possessions later to give Trinity a brief one-point lead, but the Vikings answered back immediately to edge in front 56-55 with less than 17 minutes left. Trinity had an offensive foul after that, then committed a foul on defense to limp into the under-16 media timeout.

The break did wonders for the Tigers as they came out of the timeout with a furious run that turned the game around completely. Trinity scored 15 consecutive points over a span of less than three minutes on the clock to take a 70-56 lead. Green and Williams combined for nine of the 15 points, with Fenn adding a three-pointer and Harvey knocking down three free throws.

Bethany Lutheran had that lead trimmed to just nine points by the midway point of the period, but the Tigers kicked things up to another gear with a 12-0 run to take its biggest lead of the night at 84-63 with 6:58 to play. Balo scored 10 of his 15 points during that stretch to seal the victory. The Vikings did score nine straight of their own after the Tiger run, but it was too little too late.

Up Next
Trinity will continue its weekend away from home by squaring off against Pacific University (OR) at 1:00 p.m. (MT) tomorrow afternoon.