Trinity utilized another fourth-quarter surge to come out on top, this time upsetting No. 5 seed Arrowhead Christian 55-44 in the second round of the CIF State Division V Championship Thursday night at Arrowhead Christian Academy.
“It was just a great team win and I’m proud of the guys,” said Trinity head coach Aaron Southwick. “Still trying to kind of process this game.”
The Knights (22-7 overall) walked into the unfriendliest of environments and acted as if it was their own house. They were unaffected by the scores of Arrowhead fans that would intimidate any other team.
“They had a packed house. It was awesome, the environment,” Southwick said. “I’m proud of the boys for overcoming that environment and not letting it phase them.”
The Knights also made history. A trip to the regional semifinal round of the CIF-State Championships is the furthest any Trinity team has ever gone in the playoffs.
“It feels great. Our past two years losing in the first round of the playoffs, I think it was time for a change,” said Trinity senior Kyle Fields. “We’ll go down as a great Trinity team in history. Being a part of that is exciting and wonderful.”
At the tipoff the Knights quickly fell behind 8-0, but were not going to make things easy on the Eagles (18-13). The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, until Trinity opened up in the final stretch.
Fields, John Cervantes-King and Will Yumbar were the three keys to the Trinity win. They scored 22, 12 and nine points, respectively.
Not only did Fields play well on offense, but he was a key to the defense, too. Fields locked down the post and kept Arrowhead’s Bailey Strikwerda out of the post all game.
“I’m glad that I played well. I’ve been working hard all week,” Fields said. “My goal tonight was to help my teammates get better so we could all play as a team. It’s about the fact that we all won, not just myself and I’m proud of that.”
Trinity also had to take away Arrowhead’s size advantage and keep it from making crucial rebounds in order to win the game.
“That was a critical piece of the game because they had height on us for sure. We just boxed out and we kind of stuck with it,” Southwick said. “The guys did a good of securing the loose balls.”
Trinity moves onto the regional semifinal round to take on No. 1 seed Eastside. However, two fourth-quarter surges have given the Knights the confidence they need to charge into the game ready to fight.
“I think it’s a big confidence builder to know that we’ve been in situations to put ourselves in places to win,” Fields said. “After winning tough quarters it prepares us mentally to win. Mentally and physically well be prepared to go out and win.”