WHITING, Ind. — The Trojans hit the road for their final road trip of the regular season to square off with the Crimson Wave of Calumet College of St. Joseph. Trinity held a nearly ten point advantage at the half, but an early second frame surge from the Crimson Wave closed the gap and forced a buzzer beating shot to secure victory for the Trojans, 80-78.

Trinity struggled to get on the board from the outset as Calumet opened scoring with a pair of buckets. Junior Jack Kahoun answered with a 3-pointer to start the Trojans rolling and veteran Diamond Presniakovas followed suit with the same. Trading buckets on both ends of the court, Trinity answered every Calumet challenge until a jumper from Brandon Lawani finally leveled the score at 22-22. Senior Asher Blum sank the next jumper to give the Trojans the lead that would carry them into the halftime break. Following a shot from Monte Lambert, the Trojans jumped ahead seven points before the Crimson Wave started clawing back. WIth less than four minutes remaining, Calumet closed within a bucket from Trinity but the Trojans took off on a short seven point run to give themselves a cushion going into the second half, leading 45-36.

Kahoun once again started things off, opening the second half with a jumper followed by a trey within the first minute of play. The Trojans held an 11-point advantage after two minutes, but Calumet was gaining momentum with back to back 3-pointers dwindling the Trojans' lead. A third trey from the opposition gave them the lead and the tug of war began for the ensuing seven minutes as the lead changed hands four times. With the score knotted again at 65-65, Calumet broke ranks first to take the lead once more and jumped ahead six points. Consecutive jumpers from Lawani and Kahoun cut their deficit to one and two minutes later Kahoun equalized then took the go-ahead point with a pair of free throws. With ninety seconds on the clock, Lawani sank another from the field but the Crimson Wave matched them at 78-78 with thirty seconds remaining. After an aptly called timeout by Coach Miller, The Trojans were in motion with a dead ball beneath the basket. Finding Xavier Cooper on the edge of the perimeter with the inbound, Cooper side stepped his defender and took the final shot that bounced high off the rim before dropping into the net as the buzzer rang.

Leading the Trojan offense on the night was Jack Kahoun with 16 points, as well as Brandon Lawani and Diamond Presniakovas with 14 points each. Lawani also locked up the boards for the Trojans with seven rebounds.

From the box score, the Trojans more than tripled their opponent with points converted from turnovers by a 21-5 margin. Similarly, they outscored the Calumet bench 28-18 and doubled the Wave in second chance points.

Trinity is currently ranked third in the nation as they average 10.7 steals per game.

TIU (15-12) return to Van Dixhorn Arena on Saturday afternoon for their final home game of the season. Hosting Holy Cross College, the Trojans will honor their graduating seniors before the 3:00pm tip-off.