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TRINITY INTERNATIONAL TROJANS (12-8, 5-6 CCAC) at #15 ROBERT MORRIS EAGLES (17-4, 10-1 CCAC)
Wednesday, January 20 | 7:00 p.m.
RMU Athletic Center | Arlington Heights, Ill.

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TRINITY INTERNATIONAL TROJANS (12-8, 5-6 CCAC) at #2 ST. FRANCIS SAINTS (17-2, 9-2 CCAC)
Saturday, January 23 | 7:00 p.m.
Sullivan Center | Joliet, Ill.

Quick Notes
• A pair of tough road tests are are on tap this week for Trinity International, as the Trojans are hosted by No. 15 Robert Morris on Wednesday night, and No. 2 St. Francis on Saturday.
• Both games will be available online, at TIUTrojans.com. Wednesday's matchup at Robert Morris is free, but the game at St. Francis includes a $4.99 pay-per-view fee.
• The Trojans enter play this week on their longest winning streak of the season, with four straight victories. Trinity has posted their longest win streak since Dec. 20-Jan. 28 of last season, a stretch of ten straight wins.
• As a team, the Trojans rank 2nd in the NAIA with 10.5 steals per game, and are 4th nationally with 209 total steals this season.
• Six players are currently averaging double figures for the Trojans, led by Cory Windle's 17.0 points per game. Grant Corsi (13.7 ppg), Jeremy Carlyle (13.3), Zach Kirschbaum (13.1), Thomas Amrine (10.8), and James Glass (10.3) are also in double figures at this point in the season.
• This week features the top three scoring offenses in the CCAC. TIU ranks 2nd in the league, averaging 84.1 points per game, while RMU leads the conference with 85.2 points per game, and USF's 82.2 points per game ranks 3rd.
• Defensively, TIU is 14th in the CCAC with 80.2 points allowed per game; RMU sits 9th in the league, allowing 76.3 points per game, while St. Francis has the third-best defense, with 70.5 points allowed each game.
• The Eagles have won five straight, but are just 2-2 in their last four home games. St. Francis have won three in a row and are a perfect 10-0 so far at the Sullivan Center this season.
• Trinity are currently 5-6 in league play, good for 9th in the overall CCAC standings. TIU is only a half-game behind Purdue-North Central for the eighth and final berth into the CCAC Tournament, which begins Feb. 24.
• A win for the Trojans this week would be the team's 13th of the season, matching last year's win total. The 25 victories so far between 2014-16 is the most wins over a two-year period for TIU since 2005-07 (16 wins in '05-'06, 14 in '06-'07).

Series History vs. RMU
• The Trojans trail in the all-time series with Robert Morris 7-1. Trinity's first win over the Eagles came last season, in an 80-74 home victory on Feb. 18
• Trinity are still searching for their first road win in the series, having dropped the previous four meetings away from Deerfield. 

Series History vs. USF
• Saturday marks the 11th meeting between Trinity and St. Francis, with the Saints holding a 7-3 edge in the series since 2006-07.
• The Trojans snapped a six-game losing streak to the Saints in 2013, then won it's second straight game in the series on a buzzer-beater from Sam Salem in 2014.

Last Time Out vs. Robert Morris
• Five players finished in double figures, including three seniors in their final home game of their collegiate careers, as TIU held off the Eagles, 80-74, on Feb. 18, 2015.
• Senior Sam Salem finished with a team-high 17 points, while fellow upperclassmen Justin Peeples and Nate Ball finished with 13 and 11 points each. Ball came up just short of a double-double on the night, pulling down nine rebounds.
• Trinity's biggest lead of the night came midway through the second half, when Justin Peeples scored the layup with 8:05 remaining, giving the Trojans a 60-46 edge. Over the final three minutes, the Eagles started to make their run, outscoring TIU down the stretch and cutting the deficit for four points, 68-64, with 2:19 to play. A pair of free throws made it a one-point game with :33 on the clock, but the senior Paul Badgley put the game away, knocking down all four of his free throw attempts in the final seconds to give TIU a five-point edge that would be enough to secure the win.

Last Time Out vs. St. Francis
• Justin Peeples' three-pointer with just 34 seconds left in regulation forced No. 24 St. Francis into overtime, but Trinity International came up just short in its upset bid, falling 82-79 after the extra session on in the 2014-15 regular season finale.
• Peeples led all scorers with 16 points, while two other Trojans finished in double-figures, including senior Dillon Wadsack season-high 14 points. Sam Salem posted 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
• USF scored the first points of the overtime period after the first two minutes went by without a bucket, and a pair of James Glass free throws tied the game back up at 75-75 with 2:24 to play. The Saints held a three-point edge as the Trojans held possession with just one second left, but TIU couldn't get a shot off to potentially force another OT.

National Leaders
• The Trojans rank among the top ten in NAIA-II in steals per game (2nd, 10.5), total steals (4th, 209), and turnover margin (8th, +4.9).
• On the offensive end, TIU ranks 32nd in scoring average, thanks in large part to a total of 179 three-pointers made this season, 18th-best in the NAIA.
• The Trojans rank among the NAIA's top 46 teams in all five major categories: total points (22nd, 1,681), rebounds (45th, 753), assists (46th, 289), steals (4th, 209), and blocks (24th, 71).

Career Milestone
• Senior shooting guard Thomas Amrine has collected 872 points during his Trojans career, just 128 shy of joining the 1,000-point club.
• Amrine would become the 19th player in Trinity International history to reach 1,000 points.
• Last season, Trinity had two of the 18 previous 1,000-point scorers on the same team, in center Nate Ball, and guard Dillon Wadsack.
• Ball finished his Trojans career 13th on the program's all-time scoring list, with 1,304 career points. Wadsack is 14th, with 1,170 points.

Trojans in the Polls
• Trinity International has appeared in the NAIA Division II Coaches Poll 21 times in program history, but not since the 1997-98 campaign.
• Trojans's last ranking came on Jan. 6, 1998, when the Trojans came in at No. 20.
• The highest ranking in program history was during the 1995-96 season, when Trinity was at No. 3 in the Jan. 22, 1996 poll.

Magic Number
• On the defensive end of the court this season, the 80-point mark seems to be the key for a Trojan victory. Eleven times this season, TIU has held their opponents to under 80 points, and the Trojans have gone 10-1 in those games. When allowing 80 or more points, Trinity has only two wins in nine tries, with one of those victories coming in the double-overtime win at Illinois Tech on Jan. 12..
• In the season-and-a-half of the Roberts era, Trinity International holds a 22-5 mark when their opponents score less than 80 points, and a 3-20 record when the other side hits the 80-point plateau.

New Signing
• The Trinity International men's basketball program received a major boost in the 2016 recruiting class this week, as the Trojans announced the signing of Mark Smith, a 6-7 forward from Riverside-Brookfield High School (Riverside, Ill).
• Smith is a two-year starter for Riverside-Brookfield and Head Coach Tom McCloskey. The Bulldogs are currently ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press Illinois High School Rankings at the 4A level. Smith has his squad off to a great start this season, as the Bulldogs sit at 6-1, with the only blemish a shorthanded loss to Gonzaga College HS out of Washington, D.C., the 23rd-ranked team in the USA Today National Rankings.

Up Next
• Next week, Trinity wraps up the current three game road trip, with a visit to St. Xavier on Wednesday, Jan. 27.
• The contest with the Cougars will be the third straight opponent currently ranked in the NAIA Coaches' Poll.
• On Saturday, Jan. 30, TIU returns to Van Dixhorn Arena to take on the Indiana-South Bend Titans.