LEAD

PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. -- Everything seemed to go in for everyone tonight, and Maranatha took a nine-point loss to Trinity Christian despite scoring 97 points.

Taylor Ball scored 21 points to lead MBU tonight, and Trinity shot 79 percent in the second half. It was the second-highest points total of the season for Maranatha, who ends their regular season at 7-7. 

OVERVIEW

• Result: Maranatha 97-106 Trinity Christian
• Venue: DeVos Gymnasium, Trinity Christian College
• Location: Palos Heights, Ill.
• Attendance: ---
• Records: MBU (7-7), TCC (8-8)

STORY

Trinity may have had Maranatha outmatched on paper, but that seemed to fuel the first-half fire for the Blue and Gold. Ball led with 14 points while Jed Mayhak and Caleb Moultrie chipped in eight points each.

The lead changed hands five times and it was tied eight times in the opening 20 minutes. When the horn sounded, Maranatha had a one-point lead going into halftime. But that one-point lead for Maranatha ended up a nine-point win for Trinity, who had easier looks in the second half en route to shooting 79 percent from the field.  

That's 29 percent better than what most consider to be "good".

Trinity had the quickness to create some layups, but they pulled their weight with their shooting, missing just six shots in the entire second half.

Maranatha sent five men into double digits on the night, but there was just no stopping the Trolls. The story really has two sides - one, the lead changed hands 14 times and the game was tied 15 times. And two, Maranatha played a high-quality brand of basketball, but there was no stopping the hot-shooting Trolls. After 40 minutes of good basketball, Trinity took the win with 106 points on the board.

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Maranatha Starters: 2- T. Ball, 3- Mayhak, 4- Steuerwald, 5- Sanders, 23- Wilkerson // Trinity Christian Starters: 1- Pennington, 3- Lacey, 21- Brown, 24- Johnson, 34- Dolishniy

SOUND BITE

"Really proud of my guys tonight - they competed super hard tonight," said Coach Joel Borchardt. "It was great to see the guys play hard and play for each other. We came into the game knowing that Coach Hawkins has a really good team. Obviously, they shot the ball really well tonight, but we still really took it to them and played well. Really encouraging to see us playing this well at the end of the season. Excited to see how well we play next week."

STATS

• Ball: 21 PTS, 10 REB
• Stephen Wilkerson: 18 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST
• Mayhak: 14 PTS, 1 REB, 1 STL
• Zeke Steuerwald: 11 PTS, 2 REB, 5 AST
• Moultrie: 11 PTS, 3 AST
• Trinity: Shot 79 percent in the second half
• MBU: Second-highest points total this season
• MBU: Shot 50.7 percent on the night
• Last time: Maranatha won the last time the two teams met: in 1998
• Series: Trinity Christian now leads the all-time series 14-6

OPPONENTS

• Trinity Christian competes in the Chicagoland College Athletic Conference of the NAIA DI
• Trinity Christian hadn't played a game since February 6 due to cancellations
• Trinity Christian finished last year with an 11-19 record

NEXT

The Sabercats will look to the NCCAA North Region Tournament next weekend at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa. Find details at mbusabercats.com/schedule.