December 17, 2004
Tigers Even Season Record With Win Over Newman
San Antonio - Trinity's men's basketball team defeated NAIA's 14th-ranked Newman (KS) University basketball team 88-77 to finish off the University of Incarnate Word Papa John's Holiday Classic on Friday evening.
Trinity (4-4) led 43-24 at the half, holding Newman to just 28.6% (10-35) shooting. The Tigers have lost three games by six or fewer points this season, but had no problem with Newman early in this game, jumping out to a 23-7 lead 7:29 into the game.
Trinity led by as many as 24 points in the game (55-31 with 16:04 remaining), and never led by less than 10 points until the 1:25 mark when the Jets hit a three to cut the deficit to 72-80. The three was followed by two free throws to cut it to a six-point lead (on a technical foul on Trinity), but the Tigers hit all three of their final shots to secure the win.
Andy Bates and Sean Devins led five Tiger players in double digits with 17 points in the game. Bates hit 8-11 from the field, grabbed four rebounds, also adding three assists and two blocks. Devins was 6-10 shooting (including 4-5 from the foul line), and had four boards and six blocks.
Peter Murray had 15 points on 4-5 shooting, hitting 7-7 from the free throw line, and grabbing seven rebounds. Jason Morris had 14 points and tied his career high with nine assists, while Chad Stroberg finished with 12 points and a career-best eight assists. Ross Burt chipped in with seven points and four rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
Morris has now tied John Spillane for 12th all-time in career scoring at Trinity, totaling 1,170 points so far in his career. Next up on the list are Don Rogers (1,221) and Pete Almquist (1,224), giving Morris an excellent chance of moving into the top 10 in the next few games.
Tyrone Payne had 16 points to lead the Jets, while Massamba Fall added 15 points of his own. The pair was 15-16 from the line, and 7-15 from the field. Newman was held to 39.3% shooting for the game, and committed 18 turnovers.
The Tigers shot 57.1% shooting for the game, and hit 18-20 from the charity stripe. The team also had 26 assists on 32 field goals. Trinity's will be back in action on December 29-30 at the Southwestern/Trinity Holiday Classic in Georgetown, Texas.