Men’s Basketball Clinches CCAC Second Place  (2/23/08)
With a 63-54 victory over Calumet College of St. Joseph the Trolls claimed a second place finish in the CCAC standings. Trinity ended the conference schedule with a 9-3 record and earned home court in at least the first two rounds of the CCAC tournament.
 
The nine-point victory was a battle for the Trolls, who once again got the job done defensively. They were able to hold Calumet to just 54 points and to a .279 field goal percentage.
 
The early part of the game was not in the Trolls’ favor as they fell behind by seven points midway through the first period. With 6:33 to play they trailed 20-25. Over the next four minutes the Trolls went on a 10-0 run, boosted in part by two treys by Michael Thompson, to swing the game to a 30-25 lead. Overall Trinity held Calumet to just a free throw and a buzzer shot in the final 6:33 to head in to the locker room with a 34-28 advantage.
 
In the first five minutes of the second period Trinity had increased the lead to 12 points. Calumet narrowed the gap to six over the next minute. The margin between the two teams remained between 6-8 points until the seven minute mark when Calumet pulled to within four, 50-46. The Trolls held tight and spent the next three minutes building to a nine point advantage, 57-48.
 
Calumet scored the next six points, all from the free throw line to pull to within three, 57-54 with a minute to play. Kurt Gruppen hit two charity throws to put the Trolls up by five. Michael Thompson then followed with two more good free throws to make the difference seven.  Calumet got two attempts on their next possession by failed to make either one fall. With seven seconds left Jonathan Huizinga nailed two more free throws to create the final score of 63-54.
 
The Trolls ended the game with a .414 field goal percentage and a .733 free throw percentage. They grabbed 48 rebounds to Calumet’s 40. Ross Stuursma ended the game with 18 points, hitting eight of his 14 attempts. Kurt Gruppen had 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Ebiowei Porbeni put in nine points and tallied 14 rebounds. Michael Thompson had eight points and seven assists while Jonathan Huizinga had eight rebounds.
 
The Trolls will host Purdue University-North Central in the first round of the CCAC tournament on Tuesday, February 26, at 7:00 pm.

back to athletics news