Men's Basketball Ranked in the Top 10
The Trinity Lions men's basketball team started the second semester with an incredible accomplishment. The Lions received the honor of being ranked top 10 (9th) for the NCCAA DII Men's Basketball Division.
This accomplishment was well deserved as the Lions just ended a 6 game winning streak, almost making it 7.
To begin the second semester, the Lions headed to Sisseton Wahpeton College for back-to-back games. They were led by Marcellus Mencarini and Khalil Bolden in scoring, 18 and 17 respectively, to win the first game 88-80. As they matched up against SWC again, Mencarini came out firing on all cylinders scoring a total of 31 points for the Lions. He was followed by Logan Klitske with 20 and Elvis Perez with 18. The Lions ended their second game against SWC winning 117-86.
Their next game would be against Dakota State University, an NAIA school, on the Lions home court. The Lions started the game staying right with DSU, not allowing the Trojans to gain more than a 5 point lead at the start of the game. With Caleb Phillips' 3-point-shot, the Lions took the lead with 10:16 left in the first half. Although the Trojans were able to bring the score to a tie, the Lions took the lead once again to finish the first half ahead 32-30.
It was the Trojans who came out on top in the second half, as they were able to get a 15 point lead over the Lions. However, the Lions continued to fight to close the gap. With 2 minutes left in the game, the Lions were still down by 5. It was Logan Klitzke who was able to tie the game up with a jump shot and 3-point-shot. With only 10 seconds on the clock, the Lions had the ball but were down 68-70. After two missed shot attempts, Austin Molan pulled down the offensive board and made the shot to put the game in overtime, 70-70.
Throughout the 5 minutes of overtime, there was never a lead greater than 2 points between the two teams. Although the Lions fought hard, the Trojans took the lead with 15 seconds left and finished the game on top, 79-77.
The Lions are currently led in scoring by freshman, Marcellus Mencarini, with 196 total points, followed by Khalil Bolden with 184 points. Klitzke leads the team in total rebounds, 68, and Bolden leads in defensive steals with 37.
The Lions' next game will be on the road against Mayville State University on Tuesday, January 19th at 7:00pm.
