Owings Mills, MD – Trinity (TX) University notched an 82-67 victory over Keystone College on Friday afternoon on the opening day of the Hoopsville National Invitational Classic presented by Buffalo Wild Wings that is being hosted by Stevenson University.  The Tigers, who played in the NCAA Tournament last season after winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, lift their record to 2-2 on the season with the win while the Giants also see their record go to 2-2 after their second-straight setback.
 
Keystone would open up a 21-13 advantage with 12:43 remaining in the first half after Dan Candemeres (Holbrook, NY/Sachem East) knocked down a three-pointer, but Trinity would use a 12-2 run to hold a 25-23 lead just over midway through the period.  The Tigers maintained the lead until the 5:35 mark when Candemeres hit another trey to put the Giants on top 35-33, but Trinity quickly countered with a three-pointer of their own to reclaim the lead.  The two teams traded the lead four times down the stretch with Robert Kitzinger hitting a jumper with 21 seconds left on the clock to give the Tigers a 41-40 advantage at the break.
 
Trinity enjoyed the one-point halftime lead after shooting 47.1 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of play and hitting on 8-19 three-point attempts.  The Tigers were led by Robert Kitzinger's 13 points in the half while Matt Selling contributed eight points in the period.
 
Candemeres led all players with 15 points in the opening stanza after going 5-10 from beyond the arc and Duncan Lunsford (Marietta, GA/Sprayberry) tallied nine points in the half for the Giants, who shot 53.3 percent from the floor and 8-21 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes of the contest.
 
Jesse Longmire (Harlem, NY/John S. Burke Catholic)  scored the first basket of the second half to give Keystone back the lead 24 seconds into the second half, but a jumper by Trinity's William Young quickly put the Tigers back in front.  After seeing their deficit stretched to five points, DaVaughn Thomas (Port Arthur, TX/Silsbee) knocked down a field goal and Longmire followed with a three-pointer to level the game at 47-47 with 15:58 to play.  Trinity went back ahead on a Matt Hopper 28 seconds later and the Tigers would not relinquish the lead again despite Keystone cutting their deficit to a single point on two occasions, the last coming at the 11:06 mark on a field goal by Thomas.  Trinity responded to Thomas's bucket with a 13-3 that gave them final control of the game with a 70-59 lead with 7:48 remaining. 
 
Trinity was paced by Kitzinger's 17 points while Matt Hopper added 13 points in the win.  Jonathan Wilt scored 11 points and Matt Selling contributed 10 points while both grabbing nine rebounds for the Tigers, who shot 50 percent from the field for the game, 44 percent from three-point land.  Craig Saltarelli came off the bench to dish off a game-high seven assists for Trinity.
 
Keystone's Candemeres led all players with 18 points while Lunsford added 13 points and a team-leading seven boards.  Longmire and Ben Holl (Philadelphia, PA/Friends Select School) chipped in nine points for the Giants with Longmire handing out a team-best six assists.  Keystone shot 41.7 percent from the floor on the day and hit just 13 of 45 (29.9 percent) of their shots from beyond the arc.  
 
The two teams combined for just 13 free throw attempts in the contest with the Tigers going 5-7 from the stripe and the Giants shooting 4-6 from the line.   
 
Keystone will close out this weekend's tournament on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. when they take on the University of La Verne (3-0), who defeated Ohio Wesleyan 66-63 earlier on Friday afternoon.