Men's Basketball

February 13, 2009

Trinity Upset at Millsaps to Open Road Weekend

Jackson, Mississippi - The Tiger men's basketball team, ranked 11th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, was beaten 86-67 at Millsaps College on Friday night, opening up a road weekend of conference play.

Despite the loss, Trinity (19-3, 10-2) remains atop the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference's West Division standings.  Millsaps, which is fighting for a spot in the SCAC Tournament, gave Trinity only its second double-digit loss in the last two seasons.  It marked Trinity's worst loss since an 83-64 NCAA Playoff loss against Maryville College in March of 2006.

Trinity trailed 34-44 at the half, despite shooting 50% from the field to open the game.  Millsaps shot 45.5% from the field, but also hit 8-19 (42.1%) from three-point range and took 11 more shots than Trinity in the first 20 minutes of play.  The Tigers hit under 35% in the second half, keeping them from completing a potential comeback.

Millsaps used an early 13-3 run to open up a 10-point lead, and basically never looked back in this game.  After cutting the lead to eight a couple of times, Trinity then gave up nine unanswered points to make it 30-13 with just under eight minutes left until halftime.

The Tigers made a 19-7 run to get to within five late in the period, but the Majors scored five straight points in the final minute to get back a 10-point lead.  Trinity never got closer than eight the rest of the way, as Millsaps cruised to victory.

B.J. Moon led four Tiger players in double figures, scoring 19 points on 7-10 shooting.  Jonathan Lewis added 13 points and five rebounds, while Patrick Robinson hit a pair of threes on his way to 12 points.  Charles Houston had 11 points and a team-best nine rebounds, while Luke Caldarera chipped in with eight points and eight boards.

The Trinity bench added just four total points in 48 total minutes played in this game.  Nick Polidoroff hit his only field goal and both free throw attempts for the only Tiger points outside of the five starters previously mentioned.

Chris Sanders led all scorers with 20 points for Millsaps, and four of the five starter scored in double figures.  The bench for the Majors outscored Trinity 17-4 in the game.

Trinity will travel to Conway, Arkansas tomorrow for another tough SCAC matchup with Hendrix College.  The Tigers defeated Hendrix earlier this season in San Antonio.