By the time the offense came around for the Trenton High School boys basketball team on Thursday night against Wellington-Napoleon, it was almost too late.
A tough night on the offensive end spoiled Senior Night for the Trenton Bulldogs, who fell 59-49 on their home floor to the visiting Tigers.
Trenton struggled through three quarters, scoring just nine points in both the first and second quarters and 12 in the third. But, the defense kept Trenton in the game, limiting Wellington-Napoleon for the most part and, entering the decisive fourth quarter, Trenton trailed, but just 38-30.
When Wellington pushed the lead to 10 points midway through the final frame, Trenton Head Coach Jeremy Austin called a timeout. His team responded, going on an 11-2 run to close the gap to a single point. Trenton would never take the lead, however, as Wellington responded with a run of its own to close the game, pushing the margin back to 10 points by the final buzzer.
Key in Trenton’s rally late was the use of a smaller lineup. That would also cost Trenton at the end as Wellington used rebounding to best the Bulldogs.
“We went with a little bit smaller lineup and were able to push the tempo and get to the basket a little bit more often,” Austin said. “We were scoring inside, but were still having a little bit of trouble shooting from the outside. But, by turning up the pace, that really helped us for a while. Down the stretch, (Wellington-Napoleon) was just able to rebound a lot better than we were. They got two to three shots for every one to two we got. We couldn’t stop them from scoring because we kept letting them get more and more chances.”
Senior Dylan Harris led Trenton in his final home game, going for 18 points, six rebounds and three assists. Carson Radcliff, another senior, added 13 points and two blocks and Jaren Whitney had 10 points and two blocks.
Trenton also got two points each from Isaac Harris, Dalton Burchett, Max McNabb and Carson Burchett. Isaac Harris added four assists.
Radcliff, Dylan Harris, Isaac Harris and McNabb were all honored prior to the game during senior night recognition.
“We’ve been fortunate to have these four seniors that we could always count on,” Austin said. “They are hard working and understand what we are trying to accomplish. They are people we can be proud of. To have Max, Dylan, Carson and Isaac graduating will be a sad day, but I know they are going to go out and be very successful. We will miss them here in the program and hopefully they will come back and visit us on a regular basis.”
With the loss, Trenton fell to 9-11 overall on the season.