Men's Basketball

February 8, 2008

Trinity Survives Wild Finish to Beat Southwestern Friday

Georgetown, Texas - Trinity's men's basketball team was able to survive for a 53-52 win over Southwestern University Friday night.

Trinity (14-6, 7-4) led 25-22 at the half, despite hitting less than 40% from the field.  Southwestern shot just under 43% for the first period, but made just nine field goals. 

The Tigers hit 45.5% in the second half, but Southwestern stayed in the game to the very end by making 8-11 free throws in the final period.

Trinity opened the game on a 14-0 run through the opening minutes, but Southwestern was able to outscore Trinity 22-11 after that in the first half, thanks in large part to a 14-0 run of its own that briefly gave Southwestern the lead with 7:13 left in the half.

Trinity's second half lead was no more than five points for the first seven-and-a-half minutes, but a 10-0 run put the Tigers on top 45-34 with 10:42 to play.  Southwestern kept chipping away at the lead, though, and got to within one with 2:26 left, then took its first lead of the second half with 1:25 to go. 

A pair of free throws a few seconds later put Trinity back in the lead at 53-52 with 71 seconds left.  After two missed shots by Southwestern in the final minute, Trinity had a pair of free throws with eight seconds left.  The Tigers missed both, though, and Southwestern was set up for a final shot to win the game.  Ross Hayes missed at the buzzer, and Trinity escaped with the victory.

Jonathan Lewis led Trinity with nine points in the game, while B.J. Moon finished with eight points and three assists.  Mike Gilb paced the Tigers on the boards with eight rebounds, while Luke Caldarera grabbed six rebounds to go with his eight points.

Zach Bergstrom led all scorers with 16 points for Southwestern, while Jonathan Brown finished with seven points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Trinity will host the University of Dallas Saturday night at 8:00 p.m., playing in the team's final non-conference game of the regular season.