The Trinity Women’s basketball team finished their regular season campaign with a 77-69 win over Southwestern last Friday in Georgetown. The Tigers ended a three-game losing streak with the win and are now 18-7 overall and 10-4 in conference games; they will be the No. 2 seed heading into the SCAC Championship, hosted by Trinity Feb. 28-March 2. Sophomore forward Anecia Richardson was named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the fourth time this season for her performance last weekend.
“For us, Friday was a really important game because we struggled for three games in a row, and going on the road, playing Southwestern, both aspects really played into our advantage because it’s a good rivalry game for us,” said head coach Cameron Hill.
The Tigers started the game strong, hitting three back-to-back three-pointers within the first four minutes of the game. The Tigers maintained a lead until halfway into the first half, when the Pirates tied it at 17-17. The game was back and forth until the last four minutes; the Tigers trailed at the end of the first half 29-36. The Tigers were 11-30, shooting 36.7 percent from the field.
“I thought we came out really strong in the beginning and were able to knock some shots down,” said sophomore guard Natalie DeWitte. “They had some runs, and although we were down at half, we came out and made a large run in the second half, and our defense really helped to shut down any runs that they made. We stayed patient on offense and made some great decisions.”
The Pirates increased their lead to ten points within the first two minutes of the second half, but the Tigers offense broke down the Pirates defense, leaving them unable to score for eight minutes. The Tigers maintained their lead for the rest of the game; their biggest lead was 14 points. The Tigers closed out the game shooting 47.5 percent (28-59) from the field and 40 percent from the three-point line (6-15).
Richardson scored 30 points in the game, 24 of which were in the second half. Senior guard Murphy Burns had 12 points, DeWitte had ten points and junior guard Hannah Coley had nine points. Richardson also had eight rebounds in the game, as well as two steals and one block.
Senior forward Libby Kruse had ten rebounds, three assists and three steals in the game. Overall, the Tigers had 38 rebounds, ten assists and 12 steals.
“Our girls were really motivated to do well and we made a pretty solid adjustment in the second half to give us a really good advantage going down the stretch. I think our team did a really good job executing and it really caused problems for Southwestern. It was a total team effort; I was proud of everybody,” Hill said.
Trinity will play No. 7 seed Colorado College in the SCAC quarterfinals at 6:00 p.m. tonight in Sams Gym.
The winner of the game will advance to the semifinals game at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Should they advance to the semifinals, the Tigers will play either Southwestern University or the University of Dallas. The championship game will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday. In the championship, the Tigers would play either Texas Lutheran, Centenary, Austin College or Schreiner.
“I am looking forward to getting the win,” Richardson said. “We should definitely beat Colorado College, but at the same time we shouldn’t underestimate them. Any team can win on any night, so they are definitely bringing their A-game, but we just have to be better and get the win. I think we will do very well because we know what is at stake. We are preparing for the weekend by trying to have the best practices we can have and staying focused to keep our minds on the goal on hand, which is winning the SCAC Championship.”
