SAN ANTONIO â€" Texas Lutheran Men's Basketball saw its season come to an end Friday afternoon, falling 78-65 to Trinity in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship inside Webster Gymnasium.
 
The Bulldogs got 16 points from Jordan Kouremetis, all in the second half, and battled back from a 23-point deficit to get within as few as eight in the final three minutes. The comeback fell short though as top-seeded Trinity made some late free throws to seal the game.
 
The loss dropped the Bulldogs' record to 9-17 on the season, while Trinity improved to 17-9.
 
After being held to 9-of-26 shooting in the first half, Texas Lutheran bounced back with a strong second-half showing, firing its way to a 52 percent rate in the final 20 minutes. That second-half surge allowed the Bulldogs to chip away at a 23-point Trinity lead with 10 minutes to go and bring it to within eight points with three minutes to go.
 
Kouremetis (San Antonio, Texas) was the fulcrum behind the TLU charge. The freshman, playing in his first game since sustaining an injury in a Feb. 9 contest at Colorado College, was held scoreless in the first half.
 
That wouldn't hold as he exploded to the tune of 16 second-half points, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to go along with a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw stripe.
 
Kouremetis was aided by sophomore Robert Watson Jr. (Corpus Christi, Texas) and his 10 second-half points. Watson Jr. ended up with 14 points on the day on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
 
The Bulldogs finished with 43 .4 percent shooting on the day, but struggled from both the three-point and free throw lines. They shot 5-of-21 (24%) from deep and 14-of-24 (58%) from the charity stripe.
 
Trinity, the regular-season conference champion, was led by Robert Kitzinger and Zach Lambert. Both scored 19 points and made a pair of 3-pointers. The Tigers finished 10-of-25 from behind the arc.
 
It was that work from behind the arc, along with the offensive rebound battle, that made the difference in the game. The Bulldogs actually outscored the Tigers 28-16 in the paint and 16-8 in points off turnovers, but were outscored 16-7 in second-chance points. That difference in second-chance points was due 13 Trinity offensive rebounds compared to seven for TLU.
 
Both teams were a little sluggish to start the game, with neither team able to crack the scoreboard for he first two minutes. Eventually, Trinity broke the scoreless drought and went on to score 12 of the game's first 14 points to open up a double-digit lead with 13:34 left in the first half.
 
The Bulldogs would get back within seven, trailing 14-7 with 10:23 to go after a Watson Jr. layup, but that would prove to be the closest they would get the rest of the game. Trinity quickly scored the next six points to extend its advantage to 13. That TLU deficit would float around that number for the rest of the half as the Tigers took a 38-23 lead into halftime.
 
With 13:40 to play in the game, Texas Lutheran found itself down 51-30 and that's when Kouremetis knocked down a pair of free throws to score his first two points of the afternoon. Watson Jr. and Kouremetis would score 22 of TLU's final 37 points as they chipped away at the lead.
 
The Bulldogs would use a 16-2 run to get within nine at 59-50 with 7:07 to play. That run was capped off by a Kouremetis 3-pointer. They would get within eight with 5:54 left, but that was the closest they would get, reaching that point one more time 2:01 remaining.