Trinity women’s basketball team concluded a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend with two wins over University of Dallas and Colorado College.
The team earned a 68-58 victory over the University of Dallas on Friday, Jan. 31 with a late surge. Trinity (15-4, 7-1 SCAC) also defeated the Dallas Crusaders 85-69 a week ago in Irving, Texas, earning the regular season series sweep. The Tigers remain in first place in SCAC standings, and Dallas drops to 11-8 and 3-5 in SCAC with the loss.
“Our goals are to keep winning and to get better each time we step on the court,” said junior guard Hannah Coley.
Dallas led by as many as three points during the first half, but the Tigers rallied late to take a 34-26 lead at the half. Trinity wouldn’t pull away until the latter part of the second half, using an 18-4 run over a seven-minute span to push the lead up to 16 points with just over two minutes to play.
Coley lit up the scoreboard with a season-best 24 points. Coley became the 14th Trinity player to reach the 1,000-point plateau with her night. She shot 9-12 from the field, hit 5-7 in 3-point range, and shelled out a team high of six assists.
“This season has been great. Last year we did some remarkable things, but I don’t think we ever realized how good we could be. This year we returned almost everyone and added great freshmen, which has allowed us to play at a much higher level. Additionally, we expect more out of each other, which has made us all better basketball players,” Coley said.
Coley was also named the SCAC Player of the Week for her performance this weekend. For the season, Coley is third on the team with 15.5 points per game, and is second with 69 total assists. Her 42 three-pointers lead the Tigers, and she is shooting 33.3 percent (42-126) from distance, while her 45.3 percent (121-267) shooting is second on the team.
Sophomore center Anecia Richardson and senior forward Libby Kruse both posted a double-double in the game for the Tigers. Richardson finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Kruse scored 10 points to go with a game-high 13 boards. Kruse became just the fourth player in Trinity history to reach the 700-career-rebounds mark.
Senior guard Murphy Burns scored five points in the game, and took over sole possession of second place on Trinity’s all-time scoring list with 1,428 points in her career. Burns also led the game with three steals.
The Tigers finished their conference win sweep with a 113-47 win over Colorado College the following day.
The Tigers shot over 60 percent from the field to jump out to a huge 64-19 lead in the first half. Trinity scored a season-best 113 points, which improved the team’s record to 16-4 overall and 8-1 in the SCAC.
“I was very pleased with my team’s performance, I would give us a rating of 4.5 stars out 5 because of course there is always room for improvement,” Richardson said.
Burns led all scorers with a season-best 33 points, hitting 10-17 from the field and 4-8 three-pointers. Kruse finished with four points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Both senior standouts were playing in their final regular season home games.
First-year guard Allison Staley came off the bench with a stellar shooting night, hitting 7-8 from the field and 6-7 from long range to finish with 22 points. Junior center Taylor Hollins had 10 points and nine boards, while sophomore guard Natalie DeWitte and junior guard Lauren Splawn chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively.
“Winning conference is the first of all goals. We still have seven crucial games that we need to prepare for and play, but the added motivation of winning the regular season conference title has definitely become clear and present in our minds. We still like to take each day one at a time and focus on getting better with each practice. Progress is our goal each and every day,” said assistant women’s basketball coach Stephen Bourne.
Trinity will be back in action this weekend with a pair of road games against Centenary College and Austin College, the only SCAC team to defeat the Tigers this season. The Tigers face Centenary on Friday, Feb. 7, followed by a rematch with Austin on Saturday.
