Trinity drops sectional game at Edinburgh

0

By Sam Findley

For The Tribune

EDINBURGH — In a single-elimination tournament, anything is on the table, and we see feel-good story upsets all the time. For half of Tuesday night’s game at Class A No. 8 Edinburgh, that upset felt very possible for Trinity Lutheran — but not all feel-good stories end happily, and a 10-0 run in the third quarter was enough for the favored Lancers to scrape out a 57-38 win the Cougars in the opening round of this Class A sectional.

Trinity’s season ends with a 9-15 record.

Even though the result wasn’t what Cougars head coach Brad Dickey wanted, he was still happy with the team’s effort and the coaching staff’s game plan.

“They’re a talented team and I’m sure that they made some adjustments to the plays that we had set up,” Dickey said. “We’re still kind of developing group and we didn’t adjust well to their adjustments, but our kids battled beautifully and we had such a good game plan out of the start that we can’t feel anything but proud of our guys tonight.”

Edinburgh’s pivotal run started with Caleb Dewey’s bucket at the rack in the opening possession of the second half and ended with a Dewey free throw. The Cougars’ drought ended with Jacob Conrad’s bucket at the rim, but the momentum was insurmountable.

Jacob Conrad led Trinity with 17 points. Dewey led Edinburgh (20-3) with 17 points and Riley Palmeter added 14.

The Lancers took an early 4-0 lead when Riley Palmeter picked the pocket of a Cougar and found Jarrett Turner in transition for a layup. Trinity’s Kade Hill cleaned up an offensive rebound for two points, but Dewey responded with a rim-grazer dunk. The two squads went back and forth, with Trinity extending its lead to 11-8 at one point before Turner scored two fast-break baskets to put Edinburgh ahead 12-11 after one quarter.

The Cougars’ Jacob Conrad played bully ball for an easy two inside to put Edinburgh back in a 15-13 hole. Travis Jones later put Edinburgh back in front with his own putback, and Landen Burton’s late 3-pointer gave the Lancers a narrow 21-18 edge heading into the break.

After the lopsided third quarter, all the Lancers had to do was hold on for eight minutes. Palmeter did his part, scoring six points in the fourth quarter while providing a pesky presence on defense, jumping passing lanes for multiple steals to help bury the Cougars.

No posts to display