SEGUIN â€" The Texas Lutheran men's basketball program found itself down 23-8 in the first half and couldn't dig itself out of the hole, falling 70-54 to Trinity on Friday night inside Memorial Gymnasium.
 
The loss was the Bulldogs' second straight and sixth straight home defeat. Their record dropped to 8-14 and 3-9 in the SCAC. The Tigers, currently first place in the SCAC, improved to 15-8 and 10-2 in the conference.
 
That opening run proved to be the difference in the game, with the Tigers jumping out to the big 23-8 lead behind 10 points from Robert Kitzinger. The Tigers' leading scorer ended up with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 4-of-6 shooting from three-point land.
 
The Bulldog offense was held in check, shooting 37 percent from the field for the game while the Tigers shot 54.3 percent. The first half was the difference, as the Tigers shot 57.7 compared to 34.6 percent for TLU in the opening 20 minutes.
 
The Bulldogs were led by Garrett Wilkins (Austin, Texas) and his 21 points, marking the second straight game he's led the team in scoring. He shot 8-of-16 from the field and 4-of-7 from behind the arc to go along with three rebounds and three assists.
 
Joshua Alderman (Needville, Texas) enjoyed a career night on Friday, scoring a career-high 10 points. The Bulldogs needed his outside shooting against the Trinity zone defense as he finished 3-of-5 from behind the arc.
 
After falling behind early, the Bulldogs were able to play first-place Trinity to a virtual tie the rest of the way and even managed to close a 20-point deficit to as small as five in the second half. After falling behind by as many as 22 in the first half, the Bulldogs used a 20-8 run beginning at the end of the first half and eventually cut the Trinity lead to 47-42 with 11:27 to go in the game.
 
That was the closest they would get though, as Trinity answered that run with back-to-back 3-pointers to extend their advantage back out to 11. The Bulldogs would never get back within single digits.
 
Texas Lutheran is back in action tomorrow night looking to grab its first conference home win on Senior Night. Both TLU basketball programs will honor their seniors in between the men's and women's contests. Tipoff for the Bulldogs' matchup against Southwestern is set for 4 p.m. (CT). Live stats and live video available via TLUBulldogs.com.