(Seguin) – The Trinity men’s basketball team, coached by former TLU head coach Jimmy Smith, handed the Bulldogs a pair of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference losses at Memorial Gymnasium over the weekend, 77-66 on Friday and 51-50 on Saturday.
Trinity closed Friday’s contest with a 16-6 run to break open an otherwise tightly contested game.
Sebastian Andrade paced the Bulldogs’ attack with a game-high 25 points. He added five rebounds. Avery Theus chipped in 11.
The game was tied at 37 at the break. The Tigers out-scored the Bulldogs 40-29 in the second half.
For the Tigers, Kaleb Jenkins scored 13 and pulled down seven rebounds. Ben Hanley and A.J. Clark added 12 and 10, respectively. Clark collected seven rebounds.
Trinity shot 45.8 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from the arc. The Bulldogs shot 41.5 percent from the floor and 29.2 percent at the three-point line.
TLU struggled at the foul line, shooting 60 percent (15-for-25). The Bulldogs were 6-of-14 at the line in the second half.
Trinity’s bench out-scored TLU 27-11.
Abdullah Roberts’ short jumper with 1.02 seconds to play lifted Trinity to Saturday’s 51-50 win.
Roberts’ shot capped the Tigers’ comeback from a 13-point, second-half deficit. Trinity had the lead for just one second the entire game.
TLU dropped to 1-3 overall and 1-3 in the SCAC.
Trinity won its fifth straight game and improved to 5-1 overall and to 5-1 in conference play.
Trinity out-scored TLU 29-18 in the second half. The Bulldogs led 32-22 at the half.
TLU was hurt by poor second-half free throw shooting for a second game in a row. After making just six out of 14 free throw attempts in the second half of Friday’s loss, the Bulldogs made just 6-for-14 again in Saturday’s second half.
Kaleb Jenkins and Tanner Brown scored 11 and 10, respectively, for the Tigers. A.J. Clark scored seven and had seven boards for Trinity.
TLU received 15 points off the bench from freshman guard Xavier Phillips. Phillips had 11 of his 15 in the first half. He hit his first three three-pointers of the game.
Sebastian Andrade added 10 points. Freshman post Garrett Prince blocked five shots and pulled down five rebounds.
TLU returns to action this weekend with road contests at Southwestern University on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 4:00.