The men’s basketball team hit a season high of 15 3-pointers, one shy of a school record, in its 73-60 victory over the Trinity Tigers (1-10).
UTD (8-3) came out firing on all cylinders, going 5 for 5 from beyond the 3-point line to open up the game. The downpour of treys continued for the rest of the first half, with the Comets hitting 11 of their 20 attempts from beyond the arc. On the defensive side of the ball, the Comets were able to hold the Tigers scoreless for the first five minutes of the game.
Going into the half, UTD held a comfortable 42-20 lead over the Tigers. Coming back out in the second half, Trinity was able to slow down the Comets’ attack, managing to hold UTD to only 31 points, including only four 3-pointers. Defensively, the Comets gave up 40 points in the second period as Trinity came back out with a rejuvenated attack. Despite this, the Tigers never came within 10 points of UTD for the entirety of the second half. As the clock wound down, head coach Terry Butterfield had cleared the floor of his starters to let the bench players mop up the game.
Leading the Comets was sophomore forward Kyle Coulter, who had 18 points. Coulter was 3 of 4 beyond the arc and opened up the game with 9 of the teams first 15 points. He also lead the team with 11 rebounds to pick up a double-double.
He said the team wanted to shoot the ball better after their bad showing in the last game.
“Last game we didn’t shoot the ball that well,” he said. “I think we shot 36% for the game last time. We were just excited to get back out on the court. We wanted to come out, shoot the ball well and get off to a good start.”
Other standouts for the Comets included senior guard Matt Medell and Nolan Harvey, who had 18 and 12 points, respectively. Senior guard Rafael Farley also had a solid outing with 10 points.
Butterfield said the team’s early success from the 3-point line helped to propel them in the second half.
“The fact that we got off to a good start I thought was pretty darn good,” he said. “The fact that guys stepped up and made shots when we needed shots to be made, we sort of ran out on that. I thought that we sort of slid back during the game. We didn’t shoot as many, but the damage was done sort of early and that was a good thing.”
UTD’s next game is against the current ASC leader ETBU on Jan. 8, a game that Butterfield said will be a different challenge for the team.
“We’re going to see a lot more speed and quickness on Thursday night,” he said. “They do a lot of one-on-one type stuff, give the ball to a guy and break you down. They’re undefeated and they’re going to be a problem. Our guys are going to have to rise to the challenge because they’re as good as they’ve been in a long time.”
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