The Trinity Bible College men’s basketball team defeated the #2 seed Faith Baptist Bible College 85-80 in the first round of the Regional Tournament. Trinity came in as the #3 seed while the host team Faith was ranked #2 in the North Central Region.

Trinity came out in a 3-2 zone to try to slow down some of the interior play of Faith. The game was close throughout the first half with Trinity holding the largest lead when they led by nine with seven minutes left in the first half. But Faith was able to cut the lead to 3 by the end of the first half as the Lions would lead 31-28 heading into the break.

In the second half, Faith would take a five point lead with 13 minutes remaining in the game, but Trinity would answer with a three from Shean Bosworth and a jumper by Terrance Sevion to even up the score. On the next possession, David Rohrbach would steal a pass on the right wing and Jimmy McKinzie would hit a three in transition to cap off the 8-0 run to give the Lions the lead back with 11:30 remaining in the game. The Lions would never trail again as they would use clutch shooting and key free throws to deter any form of a rally Faith could throw at them as they would defeat Faith 85-80 to advance to the North Central Regional Championship game.

Senior Shean Bosworth played an outstanding game. Bosworth scored 31 points on 10-16 shooting, and pulled down 15 rebounds for a huge double-double. He also went 3-4 from the three-point line. Senior Jimmy McKinzie added 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals to help the Lions. Also reaching double-figures for the Lions was Terrance Sevion with 15. Sevion shot 11-12 from the free throw line to help the Lions seal the win.

Coach Nowell had this to say about the game: “The guys played outstanding today. We knew it was going to take a lot of hard-work and execution to defeat Faith. Faith beat us by 20 just two weeks ago, so we knew the task that was in front of us. I felt the seniors really played very well today. It was great to see us playing with such passion and with a sense of urgency through the entire game. Overall, it was a great team win.”

The win advanced Trinity to the championship game to be played the next day versus the #1 seed North Central University.