Thanks to Darrion Trammell, the Seattle U men’s basketball team will go into one of its biggest games in decades with a stirring victory.
Trammell buried a three-pointer with 3.3 seconds remaining to give the Redhawks a 67-64 win over Cal Baptist on Saturday afternoon at Climate Pledge Arena.
The victory kept Seattle U (21-6 overall) tied with New Mexico State atop the Western Athletic Conference at 12-2.
The Redhawks will play New Mexico State at 7 p.m. Monday at the Redhawk Center, and they will go into that showdown in a much better mood after surviving against Cal Baptist (4-13, 4-10), which lost in overtime at home to Seattle U last month.
“They earned this; this is what you want as a college basketball player,” interim coach Chris Victor said of Monday’s game against perennial conference power New Mexico State, which won 82-66 at Grand Canyon on Saturday. “You want to be in first place, at home, in front of your home fans taking on the team that has dominated the conference over the last decade. You get a chance to knock them off and be in first place all alone, and it’s a great moment.”
On Saturday, the Redhawks struggled to make shots all game, but they made some big baskets in the final few minutes. The biggest was Trammell’s winner.
The Lancers tied the score at 64 with 13 seconds left on a short running jumper by Tre Armstrong.
There was little doubt that Seattle U would put the ball in Trammell’s hands with the game on the line. In the same situation in the season opener, Trammell passed to Cameron Tyson, who hit a game-winning three-pointer to beat Alcorn State.
This time, Trammell made a quick little move toward the three-point line before stepping back and taking the shot himself.
“We’re not doing anything else in that moment; the ball is in his hands,” Victor said of Trammell, the 5-foot-9 guard who is the team’s leading scorer and was the preseason WAC player of the year.
Seattle U won despite making just 31% of its shots (22 of 70) and was 9 of 26 from three-point range.
It was a sharp contrast from how Seattle U shot in a 102-62 win Wednesday at Texas Rio Grande Valley. The Redhawks shot 50% from the field in that game (38 of 76) and 50% from three-point range, with Tyson tying a school record with nine three-pointers.
Saturday’s game was filled with a lot more clanks than swishes for Seattle U. But as basketball coaches often say, offense can come and go. But defense, that can be a constant.
Seattle U’s defense in the first half was as good as it has been all season, and the Redhawks led 25-23 at halftime despite shooting 23 percent (9 of 39) and 2 of 13 from three-point range.
The Redhawks forced 12 first-half turnovers (Seattle U had four in the first half) and held the Lancers to 35% shooting (7 of 20).
“That was one of our best defensive performances of the year, those first 20 minutes,” Victor said.
Riley Grigsby scored 23 to lead Seattle U and Trammell had 22.
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