Trinity Defeats Rhodes to Open SCAC Basketball Tournament

Jackson, Miss. - The Trinity Tigers men opened the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Tournament Friday with a 62-42 victory over the Rhodes Lynx at Belhaven University's Heidelberg Gymnasium.

Trinity (16-10), the No. 1 seed from the West Division, will take on DePauw (No. 2 East) at 5 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals at Millsaps College. DePauw beat Austin, College (No. 3 West) 61-56 in Friday's opening round. Rhodes, No. 4 in the East, finished its season at 7-18. The Tigers beat the Lynx 62-51 Jan. 28 at Memphis.

The Tigers, who won their seventh straight game, were paced by first-year forward Robert Kitzinger (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), who scored a game-high 15 points. Kitzinger shot 6-7 from the field, hit 3-4 in 3-point range, and made two steals.

First-year forward Zach Lambert (Frisco, Texas/Centennial) led the match-up with eight rebounds, and four assists, while scoring eight points and picking up two steals. Senior forward Luke Caldarera (Houston/Katy Taylor) also scored eight points, and pulled in four rebounds

Trinity shot 56 percent in the first half of play, and held Rhodes to 17 percent. Trinity, which led 35-11 at the intermission, allowed only two Rhodes points in the final 14 minutes of the half.

The Tigers increased their lead to 31 points (44-13) on a jumper by Caldarera with 15 minutes to go in the game. Trinity widened the lead to 32 points (53-21) on a layup by Lambert at 9:41. Rhodes did outscore the the Tigers 21-9 after that point, but Trinity's early dominance prevailed.

The Tigers shot 50 percent (26-52) from the field, and hit 46.7 percent (7-15) from beyond the arc. Rhodes shot 31.5 percent (17-54) from the floor, and was limited to 25 percent (8-32) in 3-pointers. The Lynx held a slight 35-33 lead in rebounding.

Trinity's bench led the Rhodes subs 25-20, and the Tigers scored 24 points off Lynx turnovers. Rhodes scored 12 points off Trinity changes of possession.