Men's Basketball muscles a Friday Night Victory over Trinity

(Photo Courtesy of Joe Fusco, d3photography.com)

IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas men's basketball team (7-8, 2-4 SCAC) pulled out a 77-70 victory on Friday night at the Maher Center versus Trinity University (6-11, 2-4). Dallas has won two of the past three against the Tigers, with both triumphs coming in consecutive seasons at the home confines. The Crusaders would build a 36-25 advantage at halftime, and held on in a very physical contest to improve to 6-2 at Maher this year.

From the opening tip it was a back-and-forth game with junior Tom Kaiser (Nashville, Tenn.) getting Dallas on the board the first 30 seconds after following up on an offensive rebound. After the squads traded steals, Trinity knotted things on a layup by Matt Jones. All five of the game's ties would occur in the first five and a half minutes of the opening stanza. Freshman Darrius Colvin (Waco, Texas) would net the first of two trifectas to even the scoreboard a final time, 13-all, with 14:28 to go.

The Tigers and UD exchanged baskets a few more times before Colvin dialed his second three-pointer in as many attempts to propel the home team in front, 18-17. That sparked a rally of eight unanswered points with a layup by sophomore Austin DiCambio (Huntington Beach, Calif.) and trey by junior Michael Sarrat (Colleyville, Texas) to put Dallas up 23-17.

The scoring span in the final 7:11 minutes of the frame favored the Crusaders 13-8. Colvin completed a layup that was assisted by Sarrat with 2:17 to open the first double-digit edge of the night, and would lead by the greatest margin at the time, 36-23, on a layup from DiCambio in the final nine seconds. TU's AJ Pulliam connected on two free throws to close the half.

In the second half, Pulliam continued his string of eventually 12-straight points for the Maroon and Gold with four field goals to begin things. Dallas shifted the momentum back as Colvin sparked a 10-0 outburst that reflected the greatest lead of the game of 15 (46-31). Freshman Prince Giadolor, who was among a trio of double figure scorers for the Navy and White, would notch the jumper.

Trinity stayed aggressive and would utilize its size advantage to force the Crusaders into committing their second highest number of fouls on the campaign with 28. That was one shy from the season-opener at Hendrix College on November 15, 2015.

With just over eight minutes left in regulation, the Tigers cut things to 51-45. UD's freshman TJ Cooks (Jenks, Okla.) drained his lone three attempt to push the advantage back to nine. Trinity countered immediately with a trey by Khambrel Roach and rattled eight points in a row to nip things to one with 6:52. Pulliam muscled the final layup of that stretch.

The Crusaders toughness did not waver, and Dicambio started a game-changing 10-3 run that also was capped by back-to-back scoring results that were three's from Sarrat. TU's Pulliam added two splits at the free throw line, as the Navy and White added nine more points to take control one final time, 73-58.

The trio of Colvin, Giadolor, and Sarrat were responsible for 20 of the last 22 points in the game etched by Dallas. This was also over a 5:34 span.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

- Colvin managed a personal best 20 points and shot 50 percent from the field with seven successful attempts. He was also 4-of-5 at the charity stripe. The guard tallied 12 points on his career night in the first.

- Sarrat logged his highest scoring performance at home this season with 18. He was two away from a season-best against Curry College on Nov. 27. He found the touch from beyond the arc with four made out of the team's seven total. Giadolor added 13 to round out the unit and poured 11 in the second half. Nine occurred in the last 2:43 minutes.

- DiCambio had a game-high eight rebounds, while Colvin and Sarrat each grabbed seven. Dallas shot 49.2 percent in field goals, finishing above 48 percent in both frames. The team won the battle on the boards 44-35 and pounded the paint 44-24.

- Trinity started out 24.1 percent from the floor in the first half, but would finish 36.2 percent in the game. Despite reaching the free throw line 13 more times than UD, the Tigers shot 61.8 percent. The team did force 20 turnovers while committing 16 miscues. Trinity had a 13-10 edge in steals.

- Pulliam led the Tigers with 17 points and Ben Beatie added 12.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH

"I thought we played a great team defense. They are a big and well coached group so we knew it was going to be tough. Our guys had to fight and scrap for everything. Colvin was great on both ends of the floor, and Sarrat hit big shots for us as well. DiCambio did the dirty work of grabbing rebounds and getting some timely steals. I was pleased with our overall effort and was a solid team effort tonight." –Head Coach Jarred Samples

UP NEXT

Dallas concludes a five-game, home stand on Saturday versus Schreiner University. Tip-off slated at 4 p.m.