2008 Woodie Awards
Hoops push through injury
Tigers remain 2 games behind Millsaps for division lead; final home games this weekend
Jonny Wiener
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Sports
After two excruciating conference losses two weekends ago, the Trinity Tigers received another devastating blow in the opening minutes of Friday's game vs. Southwestern when star forward Charles Houston, junior, went down with a severe high-ankle sprain.
With Houston on the sidelines, the Tigers turned in perhaps their gutsiest effort of the entire season, holding off a late second half rally by Southwestern University to claw their way to a 52-51 road victory.
Winning without Houston, one of the SCAC's premier defenders and arguably the Tigers' best player, was an achievement in itself. But earning a conference win by building a large second half lead and prevailing in the final minutes- something the Tigers could not do last week in an overtime loss to Centre College (Ky.) and a last-second loss to DePauw University (Ind.)- was even more crucial.
"Losing those two games last week [against Centre and DePauw] was tough on us, because we had leads and should have won both of them," said Trinity Assistant Coach Chris Hill. "So this week [against Southwestern], it was all about bouncing back and finishing a game, and we kept playing and did that."
With the win, Trinity (14-6, 7-4 SCAC) staved off its first three-game losing streak of the season to remain in second place, and within striking distance for the SCAC Western Division title.
The Tigers nearly let this one slip away, though, as Southwestern pulled ahead of Trinity by one point with a 10-0 run at the close of the game, putting the Tigers on the verge of another heartbreaking collapse. But with 71 seconds remaining, guard Barret Koch, Senior, sank two free throws to put the Tigers back up by one, and Trinity forced Southwestern into three missed shots in the final minute of the game to preserve the one-point win.
"Luckily, [Koch] stepped up and knocked down those free-throws, but we've got to figure out those last five minutes, and what's going on there right now," Hill said. "It's almost like we're playing to let time run out. But we got the win, and that's the bottom line. We kind of needed a win in a tight game just to get our confidence back."
With Houston on the sidelines, the Tigers turned in perhaps their gutsiest effort of the entire season, holding off a late second half rally by Southwestern University to claw their way to a 52-51 road victory.
Winning without Houston, one of the SCAC's premier defenders and arguably the Tigers' best player, was an achievement in itself. But earning a conference win by building a large second half lead and prevailing in the final minutes- something the Tigers could not do last week in an overtime loss to Centre College (Ky.) and a last-second loss to DePauw University (Ind.)- was even more crucial.
"Losing those two games last week [against Centre and DePauw] was tough on us, because we had leads and should have won both of them," said Trinity Assistant Coach Chris Hill. "So this week [against Southwestern], it was all about bouncing back and finishing a game, and we kept playing and did that."
With the win, Trinity (14-6, 7-4 SCAC) staved off its first three-game losing streak of the season to remain in second place, and within striking distance for the SCAC Western Division title.
The Tigers nearly let this one slip away, though, as Southwestern pulled ahead of Trinity by one point with a 10-0 run at the close of the game, putting the Tigers on the verge of another heartbreaking collapse. But with 71 seconds remaining, guard Barret Koch, Senior, sank two free throws to put the Tigers back up by one, and Trinity forced Southwestern into three missed shots in the final minute of the game to preserve the one-point win.
"Luckily, [Koch] stepped up and knocked down those free-throws, but we've got to figure out those last five minutes, and what's going on there right now," Hill said. "It's almost like we're playing to let time run out. But we got the win, and that's the bottom line. We kind of needed a win in a tight game just to get our confidence back."
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