Men's Basketball

January 5, 2008

Tigers Fall to Majors in SCAC Saturday Showdown

Jackson, Mississippi - After starting the conference season off 3-0 in 2007-08, the Trinity men's basketball team lost a tough 67-73 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference showdown at Millsaps College on Saturday night.

Trinity (10-2, 3-1) falls to second place in the SCAC West Division, while Millsaps remains the last unbeaten team in the division at 3-0. 

The Tigers trailed 34-36 at the half, despite shooting 57.7% (15-26) from the field.  Millsaps hit just 13-30 (43.3%) overall, but nailed 7-17 (41.2%) from three-point range to keep pace with the red-hot Trinity offense.

Trinity used an early 7-0 run to take a 13-7 lead less than five minutes into the game, but Millsaps responded with an 11-2 spurt immediately afterwards to pull ahead 18-15.  The Majors hit a three-pointer with 31 seconds left in the half to take the two-point advantage at the break. 

The teams traded leads through most of the second half, with neither team able to put together any consistent run early on to take control of the game.  In the final minutes, Millsaps was finally able to string some points together, turning a 55-55 tie into a 66-55 lead with less than two minutes to play.  Trinity mounted a comeback in the final minutes, but the Majors hit 7-9 free throws to seal the win - including a pair of foul shots that pushed the lead to six after Trinity had narrowed it to 67-71 with 12 seconds left. 

Trinity's Patrick Robinson scored 20 points to lead all scorers, hitting 8-13 overall shots and 3-5 from three-point range.  Robinson has led the team in scoring each of the past four games, and he has scored 20 or more in the past two.

Luke Caldarera came off the bench to post a solid double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds.  Charles Houston chipped in with eight points and 10 boards, while B.J. Moon finished with eight points and three assists.

Barrett Koch also finished with eight points off the bench, while Nick Polidoroff added seven points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes.

Edrick Montgomery led Millsaps with 16 points on 5-13 shooting, also adding 6-8 from the foul line.  Rodney Rogan added 15 points, while Chris Sanders finished with 10 points and a team-best eight rebounds.

Trinity returns home next Saturday in continued SCAC action against Southwestern University at 5:00 p.m.  That will begin a three-game homestand in conference play.