Trinity starts season on winning note
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Tim Hodges, right, looks for a lane past Washington’s Carlos Harper in the season-opening game at Canon-McMillan.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Dante DeRubbo (15) works for his shot against Washington defenders Zxavian Willis (5) and Davoun Fuse (10).
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Tim Hodges, left, gets the upper hand over Washington’s Davoun Fuse.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Washington’s Ruben Gordon (3) leaps past Trinity shooter Dante DeRubbo as the Prexies tried to stifle the Hiller offense in the season-opening game.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Tyler Johnson (13) weaves through the press applied by Washington defenders Zxavian Willis (5) and Ruben Gordon (3) as the Hillers upended the Prexies in the season-opening game at Canon-McMillan.
CANONSBURG – Wash High started a new era with a loss.
Trinity got a gritty win against a county foe.
That’s the first step to bouncing back from a 6-16 season.
Both schools opened their years against each other Friday night in the Canon-McMillan Tournament, and Trinity fought for a 55-50 win.
“I thought a lot of guys stepped up in big moments,” Trinity (1-0) coach Tim Tessmer said.
One player who stepped up for Trinity was another Tim: Tim Hodges. Hodges, a junior, had 16 points to lead the Hillers.
“He’s been good,” Tessmer said. “We’ve had him for a while now, and just seeing the progress he’s made has been tremendous. He goes and gets the basketball, and he can finish around the rim in so many different ways.”
The teams got off to slow starts. After three minutes of play, Trinity led 2-1, and neither team made a field goal. It looked like a season-opening game in that both teams were as rusty as old nails.
Neither team made a field goal until Wash High scored with a little more than four minutes left in the first quarter. Trinity got its first made basket at the 1:43 mark of the first quarter, on a dunk by Hodges. Hodges got called for a technical foul for “pulling himself up on the rim.”
Wash High led 30-26 at the half, with 14 points by Ruben Gordon leading the Prexies and all scorers at the break. Wash High shot 24 free throws in the first half and Trinity shot 13. The Prexies shot poorly from the line, going 11-for-24, and the Hillers also struggled, going 6-for-13. For Trinity, Hodges paced the scoring with 13 of his points.
Tessmer said the first half was “really sloppy” but attributed part of that to the nature of a typical Trinity-Wash High matchup.
“I think any time these guys are playing Wash High, it’s going to be a tough, hard-nosed game,” Tessmer said. “No matter if we play them in December or February, it doesn’t matter, or we play them in June or July. It doesn’t make any difference.”
Trinity owned the third quarter, outscoring Washington 17-7. Washington didn’t score its first basket until the 3:44 mark, when Davoun Fuse hit a shot. Fuse finished with 14 points, and Ruben Gordon led the way for the Prexies with 19.
The Hillers kept it going in the fourth quarter to finish off the Prexies. For Tessmer, the team “got it going quick” in the second half.
“Our guys knew we had played a little bit sloppy in the first half, and (Wash High) just had so many deflections,” he said. “They were just getting hands on passes. So we just made a couple of adjustments.”
Wash High is still looking for its first win of the coach Ryan Bunting era.
Bunting assisted Ron Faust at Wash High for eight seasons before Faust retired after the 2021-22 campaign. For Bunting, the best team won Friday.
“Trinity played better than us tonight,” Bunting said. “They have a good ballclub, executed their stuff better than we did tonight.”
Bunting felt comfortable in his head coaching debut and expects to feel more comfortable with more experience.
“My first year teaching fifth grade, it was similar,” Bunting said. “Like an assistant coach, I was a student teacher and went into teaching fifth grade. … So it’s always some excitement, a little bit of nerves, but planning and preparation are key. I thought we planned and prepared to be ready to execute. So I felt comfortable, confident in this, even though it was my first game, to be ready to execute the plan we had set in place.”
Wash High will look to bounce back against Canon-Mac Saturday. Trinity looks to improve to 2-0 against South Fayette.
In the nights’s second game, South fayette defeated Canon-McMillan, 57-41.
Overall, it was a sweet night for Trinity.
“These kids have grown up playing against Wash High their entire lives,” Tessmer said. “So they all relish it, and I think the guys on the other side like to play Trinity just as much as we like to play Wash High. So it’s a good game for these guys and a great way to start the season.”