SAN ANTONIO – The 23rd-ranked Trinity University men's basketball team fell short in the final game of the Leslie Robinson Classic with a 79-70 loss to #17 Wisconsin Lutheran College on Saturday evening.
The Tigers fell to 6-2 on the season with the loss, while the Warriors improved to 9-1 this year with two wins in San Antonio this weekend. Trinity struggled from three-point range and at the foul line in tonight's game, hitting just 2-for-19 (10.5%) of its threes and going 20-for-32 (62.5%) from the free throw line. Wisconsin Lutheran shot nearly 50% from the field, making 42.9% (9-of-21) from distance, and scoring 20 points off 18 Tiger turnovers.
Braxton Barry (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) just missed a double-double with 12 rebounds and eight points.
Christian Green (San Antonio, Texas / Veterans Memorial) led Trinity's scorers with 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting, adding seven rebounds and two steals.
Jacob Millhouse (Plano, Texas / Independence) added 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting, while
Jacob Harvey (Huffman, Texas / Hargrave) scored all 11 of his points at the foul line with an 11-for-11 performance.
Carter Ruck (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) came off the bench to score nine points in 14 minutes, hitting 4-for-8 from the field.
Zach Fenn (Covington, La. / Saint Paul's) swiped five of the team's 13 steals.
The Rundown
Wisconsin Lutheran scored the first two buckets and led 5-2 nearly two minutes into the game, but Trinity scored eight unanswered points as four different players scored baskets over the next two minutes. The Tiger lead was as high as six points (14-8) before the Warriors scored 13 of the next 15 points to regain control of the game at the midway point of the first half. Millhouse nailed a three-pointer to break up a dry spell of nearly three minutes for Trinity, bringing the deficit to just 21-19. The two teams traded scores for the next few minutes, but Wisconsin Lutheran pulled away with a 14-2 run that put the visitors in front 40-25 with 2:21 to play in the period. Trinity couldn't put together a run to close the half and trailed 44-32 at halftime.
The first two minutes of the second half saw both teams trading baskets and the lead was still 15 when Trinity finally put together a streak to cut the lead in half. Ironically, the comeback came at the line as the Tigers hit seven consecutive free throws to pull within eight points at 48-40 just ahead of the under-16 media timeout. The Warriors broke up the run to push the lead back to double figures and Trinity hit its first field goal of the half with 13:48 to draw back to within eight as an answer. Wisconsin Lutheran scored the next five points, though, and led by double digits for all but a few moments for the rest of the game. The lead was still 14 points with under three minutes to play when Trinity made its final push for a comeback. Millhouse and Ruck hit back-to-back shots to pull within 10 with 2:20 to go, but it took over a minute to add to the run as
Robert Conrad (Cedar Creek, Texas / Cedar Creek) scored on a fastbreak layup to make it 75-68 with 1:11 remaining. Wisconsin Lutheran effectively sealed the win on its next possession, nailing a three-pointer to take the lead back to 11 points with just 45 seconds left.
Up Next
The Tigers will open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play against Schreiner University (TX) at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 31, in Kerrville, Texas.
