Men’s Basketball Loses in First Round  (3/18/08)
In the first round of the NCCAA National Tournament held in Oakland City, Indiana, the No. 6 seed Trolls came close to an upset victory over No. 3 Chowan University from Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Trinity was just short of the win with a 66-72 final. They will move in to the loser’s bracket and take on No. 7 Oakland City University at 3:00 pm on Wednesday.
 
The game got off to a slow start as the score was just 4-4 after six minutes of play. Toward the end of the half the teams were still tied at 18-18. Back-to-back three-pointers by Will Bruinsma helped give the Trolls a 26-24 lead with three minutes to play. However in the remaining minutes Trinity was out-scored 9-2 to head into the locker room with a five-point deficit, 28-33.
 
Time and time again in the second period the Trolls pulled to within a point of Chowan; however they were never able to get advantage and trailed the entire half. For a large majority of the period the gap between the two teams was within five points.
 
With just a 1:20 left in the game the Trolls trailed 61-64. They missed on their next shot attempt and were forced to put Chowan on the line. In the final minute Chowan hit 8 for 10 of their free throw attempts to keep the Trolls an arm’s length away.
 
Trinity shot 41.0% from the field, including 8 for 22 from the arc. Will Bruinsma led the team with 24 points, connecting on 50% (10/20) of his shots. Kurt Gruppen added 14 points and Ross Stuursma had 13. Ebiowei Porbeni was the high rebounder with eight.

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