The “real” Trinity basketball team showed up for the start of the third quarter Friday night in Freedom Hall.
Leading rival St. Xavier 27-23 at halftime, the state’s No. 1-ranked team in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings erupted for 10 consecutive points in the first 2:09 of the third period and rolled to a 63-45 victory.
With 6-foot-1 guard Charles Foster leading the way with 17 points and Nathan Dieudonne and James Quick adding 11 points apiece, Trinity (17-2) beat St. X for the sixth straight time and now is 7-1 against the Tigers in the big arena. In its last nine meetings with St. X, Trinity has eight victories.
It also was Trinity’s 12th victory in a row and left the Shamrocks 15-0 against Kentucky teams going into tonight’s 7:15 battle against Madison Central in the Joe B. Classic at Montgomery County High in Mount Sterling. No. 8 Madison Central (19-0) is the state’s only unbeaten team. The Indians from Richmond got a scare before edging Lincoln County 50-49 Friday night in Stanford.
Trinity, which won the prestigious 20-team Louisville Invitational Tournament last week at Bellarmine University, trailed St. X 21-20 after Christian Hardy sank two free throws with 4:01 left in the first half.
But Quick took care of that, scoring the Shamrocks’ last six points of the period.
Did Trinity coach Mike Szabo get on his team at halftime?
“A little,” he said with a slight smile. “These guys get it. They know what to do. They realize they can play harder. St. X played well (in the first half), and that’s to their credit.”
Trinity seemed content to launch 3-point shots against St. X’s matchup zone defense in the first half, hitting only 3 of 13. But Foster and his teammates turned up the defensive pressure to start the third quarter and got out on the fast break quicker for layups.
“We took them lightly in the first half, but we turned the defense on in the second half,” said Foster, who scored 11 points in the last two quarters. “I score off of my defense. I just wanted to go out with a win over St. X in my senior year.”
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