Men's Basketball

February 15, 2008

Tigers Fall to Hendrix in SCAC Play Friday

San Antonio - Despite a double-digit lead in the second half, Trinity's men's basketball team was unable to hang on against Hendrix College on Friday night, losing 65-70.

Trinity (15-7, 7-5) led 33-26 at the half, thanks in part to B.J. Moon's buzzer-beating three-pointer.  The Tigers hit 11-22 from the field, holding Hendrix to just 34.5% shooting in the first half.

In the second half, it was Hendrix that had the hot hand, hitting 56.5% from the field.  Trinity connected on less than 40% of its shots in the final 20 minutes.

After a fairly evenly played first half, Trinity went ahead by 13 points with just over 13 minutes remaining in the second half.  After Hendrix scored five straight to cut into the lead, Trinity answered with six unanswered points of its own to push the lead back to a dozen (52-40).  The visitors would not go away, though, scoring eight straight points to make it a four-point game with 9:09 to play.

Less than three minutes later, Hendrix managed to tie the game at 53-53 on a pair of free throws by Andrew King.  King finished with a game-high 25 points and seven rebounds, hitting 10-18 from the field and 5-5 from the line.

Hendrix then went on a 6-0 run to pull ahead of Trinity with 2:28 left.  Moon hit a three with 51 seconds left to make it a three-point game, and he finished with the game with a team-best 13 points and three assists.

After two more free throws put Hendrix up five, Trinity hit 1-2 from the line to make it a four-point game with 36 seconds to play.  Hendrix then missed both free throws after a Tiger foul, and Luke Caldarera nailed a clutch three-pointer to cut the lead to just one at 65-66 with 14 seconds left. 

Trinity fouled again to put Hendrix on the line, but this time the Warriors hit both to push the lead back to three.  The Tigers missed the next three-point attempt that would have tied it, and Hendrix hit two more free throws to ice the win.

Jonathan Lewis scored a career-high 13 points for the Tigers, hitting 5-8 shots and grabbing five rebounds, and tying Moon for the team scoring lead.

Barrett Koch hit all four of his shots on his way to 11 points, while Caldarera finished with nine points and a team-best six rebounds.  Mike Gilb chipped in with six points and five boards.

Cal Rose of Hendrix scored 19 points, hitting 5-10 three-point shots, and David Foley came off the bench to score 11 points for the visitors.

Trinity will host SCAC West Division leader Millsaps College on Sunday afternoon.  It will mark the final regular season home game for the Tigers.