Tiger Men Defeat Rhodes to Open SCAC Road Trip

Memphis, Tenn. - The Trinity Tiger men's basketball team took out the Rhodes Lynx 62-51 in an SCAC match-up in Mallory Gymnasium on Friday night.

Trinity, which has won two of the last three games, upped its record to 9-9 and 6-4 SCAC. The Tigers are in second place in the West Division. Rhodes dropped to 4-14 and 0-10.

Tiger senior forward Luke Caldarera (Houston/Katy Taylor) led the game with 15 points (10 in the first half) and seven rebounds. Caldarera also chalked up four assists and four steals. 

First-year forward Robert Kitzinger (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) contributed 13 points (11 in the first half) , shooting 3-7 beyond the arc. Junior guard Ryan Beall (Santa Barbara, Calif./Dos Pueblos) scored 11 points, and racked up a game-best six steals. First-year forward Zach Lambert rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points, along with three steals.

The Tigers held a 33-29 lead in the first half, without making a free throw attempt. They sank 12-15 (80 percent) from the charity stripe in the second half. Trinity shot 48 percent from the field in the first half, to 45 percent for Rhodes. Another key first-half stat was turnovers, as Rhodes committed 11, while Trinity made three. 

Trinity pulled out to a 41-32 lead with 17 minutes left in the game. Over the next eight minutes, the Tigers outscored the Lynx 10-6, and led 51-38 with nine minutes to go. In the final six minutes, Trinity held a slight 9-7 scoring  advantage, and closed out the victory.

Steals and turnovers would prove to make a huge difference in the game. Trinity registered 21 steals, and Rhodes made only seven. The Tigers first-year guard Matt Feldman (Honolulu/Punahou) added to the "thieving" Tigers, with five steals.

The Lynx committed 23 turnovers, and the Tigers made nine.

Rhodes was paced by John Dunavant's 14 points, and 10 by Andrew Galow.

Trinity shot 39 percent (23-59) and Rhodes hit 38.6 percent (17-44). The Lynx led 29-26 in rebounding.

The Tigers travel to Birmingham, Ala., Saturday for an 8 p.m. SCAC game with Birmingham-Southern.