DEERFIELD, Ill. - Four players finished in double figures, led by freshman
Jeremy Carlyle's 17 points, but a tough first half proved to be too much as Trinity International fell at home, 82-72 to the Purdue-Calumet Peregrines on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score | Season StatsSam Schroeder, in his first collegiate varsity game, finished with 14 points off the bench, while
Sean Smith collected 13 points, and
Caleb Kelley, in a career-high 32 minutes, finished with 11.
The Trojans (8-4, 2-2 CCAC) shot 20.6% (7-34) in the first half, allowing Purdue-Calumet to jump out to a 12-4 lead in the opening five minutes of the game. The Peregrines later used an 18-2 run over five minutes of the first half to claim a 34-12 advantage at the 5:12 mark of the first. A pair of buckets from
Paul Badgley just before the break cut the lead to 40-20 heading into the half.
The visitors would lead by as much as 29 points in the second half, on Chandler Spring's three-pointer with 15:40 to play, before Trinity would start to rally back. A steal and layup from Carlyle at the 7:34 mark would cut the lead under 20, as part of a 9-0 run for the Trojans that made it a 61-45 score with just under seven minutes to play. A three-pointer from Carlyle with 1:50 on the clock brought Trinity back to within single-digits, 73-64, but the Trojans ran out of time before completing the comeback.
"We've had a tough week, and it would have been understandable if the lineup we had on the floor would have stopped playing hard. But to watch them keep fighting despite the circumstances was inspiring to everyone who watched that game," said head coach
Boomer Roberts after the game. "We had several guys who had never seen action in a college basketball game play well, and play with termendous effort. We could not buy a bucket early, and if we had been able to I think that's a completely different game."
Trinity heads out on a two-game road swing next week, starting this Wednesday night. The Trojans take on Holy Cross on December 9, with tipoff set for 6:30 p.m. Central time.
