Trinity Washington
- Feb 24, 2023
- 6 min read
Trinity Washington Tigers (4-12) vs. Hollins (5-16)
Sunday, February 12, 2023 @ 2:00 PM
Washington, DC
Trinity Center for Women & Girls in Sports
THE SCHOOL
Trinity Washington University is a private, Catholic, women’s university in Washington, DC. Founded in 1897, TWU enrolls about 1,800 students. The school used to be known as an “elite” women’s school (former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is an alumnus), but declining enrollment forced a change in recruitment. Trinity now mostly enrolls DC residents (an unsourced Wikipedia quote claims it is “the private college of choice for the women of DC public schools”) and close to 95% of the student body is either Black or Latina.
The Tigers compete as an independent in NCAA Division III. There are 430 or so D-III women’s basketball teams. Of those, only four do not belong to a conference. Trinity mostly schedules other small women’s colleges and non-NCAA Christian schools in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Hollins University is a private women's university in Roanoke, Virginia. Their basketball team competes in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), also in D-III. Hollins does not have a nickname. I don’t know why; they’re just Hollins.
THE TOWN
Trinity marks the eighth and final school on my DC map. American, Gallaudet, Catholic, Howard, UDC, George Washington, Georgetown, and Trinity are now all under my belt. But I almost didn’t make this one.
Trinity is about three miles from my apartment. I thought I would walk, stop for lunch on the way, and ride back with Allison (who was driving to the game after work). This was a bad plan.
First, it was cold and rainy, and generally just bad walking weather. Second, the place I’d intended for lunch was busier than I’d imagined, causing a detour to a different restaurant and an increasingly hungry Will. Third, I got a little turned around on the way there, and had to retrace my steps a couple times.
With all these factors, Google Maps told me I was on track to be ten minutes late, which I didn’t care for. After walking through the rain for over an hour, at just after two o’clock, I reached the place Google tells me is the entrance to campus.
Instead, I found a locked gate. I walked around to find another entrance, only to be met with another locked gate. I was confused. Was the game not happening? Was the campus closed? Did Trinity actually exist? I was becoming disheartened, and was a few minutes from turning around and going home.
But in my moment of uncertainty, I spotted a knight in shining armor riding past me: a silver Kia Soul. Allison’s car.
She was also confused and also frustrated at Google Maps and the locked gates. But cars are faster than feet, so she was able to drive around and find an opening to the university. Eventually, she found an entrance with an open gate and led me to it over the phone.
I hustled over there and got to the gym at about 2:25. Upon entering the gymnasium, I heard music playing over the speakers, so I assumed we’d missed the first quarter. Oh well – that’s too bad – but I was just relieved to be on school grounds.
Instead, the game hadn’t started. It had been delayed. We weren’t twenty-five minutes late, we were thirty-five minutes early.
No one ever said why it was delayed. I suspect the referees were late arriving (maybe they couldn’t find an unlocked entrance either), because I didn’t see all three until just before tip-off, but that’s just speculation. However it happened, it worked to my benefit.
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Trinity’s campus is tucked away in the northeast corner of Washington, sandwiched between the campuses of Howard and Catholic. It’s exactly what you expect from an old-ish Catholic school. Stone buildings and big trees fill up campus grounds, and there’s a quiet ambience on a Sunday afternoon.
The Trinity Center is a surprisingly nice place. I don’t know what I expected, but I did not anticipate a spot this big. It seems to be an old facility, but it’s in great condition and it looks really cool. I mean no disservice to Trinity, but this is not the highest level of D-III ball. Trinity has had as many winless seasons as winning records over the past ten years (with two apiece), and their head basketball coach is primarily a 12th grade social studies teacher, who also coaches high school volleyball and softball. Yet, the Trinity Center is one of the best small school gyms I’ve visited around DC.
THE GAME
In my Johns Hopkins writeup, I mentioned that their public address announcer wore a full suit with a bowtie. Trinity’s PA guy wore a gray sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. He was the single-most entertaining person this blog has encountered.
Some teams have a hype man to keep the crowd engaged during game breaks. Trinity doesn’t have one of these, so the PA guy steps in. For example, during one break he told the crowd, “I know everyone’s gonna be watching the Super Bowl tonight. I think it’s gonna be a great game! Do we have any Eagles fans in the building?” Several people cheered. “ Do we have any Chiefs fans?” A few more people cheered. “Alright! I think it’s gonna be a great game. But we’ve got a great game here too.” Moments like this occurred frequently.
Some teams have cheerleaders to pump up the crowd. Trinity doesn’t have cheerleaders, so the PA guy steps in here too. When Hollins brought the ball up the court, he’d go, “De-Fense! *slaps microphone* *slaps microphone*, De-Fense! *slaps microphone* slaps microphone*.” Whenever Hollins turned the ball over, he would say, “Turnover on Hollins player [first name] [last name]. You can’t do that!” During halftime, he tried to start the wave.
The Trinity PA guy was fundamentally changing the rules of his position. He was a partisan, goofy, chatty, cheerleading hype man who was clearly having a good time. And it worked, I was entertained each time he spoke. I don’t know what his regular job is, but I’ll be a reference for him if the Wizards ever need a new public address announcer.
Also unique for this level of basketball: a mascot! Everybody, meet Tina the Tiger. Tina held on to her head for most of the game as if she were scared it would fall off. During halftime (before the attempted wave), kids were invited to get on the court to dance with Tina and take pictures with her. There were only about two kids in attendance, so that was mostly a wash, but it’s good to see a mascot, even in independent Division III ball.
Also of note: during the thirty-five minutes I spent waiting before the game started, Trinity played music; this is normal. It seemed to be from a Pandora playlist; this is also normal, though I haven’t heard much out of Pandora in a few years. What was notable was that they were using the free version of the app, so it had ads. After every second or third song, the whole crowd would hear fifteen-second spots for car insurance, McDonald’s, or – my favorite – “It’s time for laser hair removal at Hairaway.” It was a little jarring.
~~
Trinity’s #4, Taryn Yancey, got the scoring started with a three-point shot one minute into the game. Things were looking great for the Tigers!
The feeling ended quickly. Hollins’ #24, Ariana Gutierrez, made two threes in quick succession as Hollins went on a 14-0 run over the ensuing three minutes. However, Trinity fought back. Yancey had another highlight when she made another three, then got the steal on defense, and converted a transition layup. Strong play toward the end of the quarter proved worthwhile for the Tigers, as they battled to a 17-17 tie at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Hollins’ #34, Rebekah Funderburk, came off the bench. No one in Trinity’s starting lineup is taller than 5’5”. Funderburk is listed at 6’4”. She didn’t have to jump for rebounds, as they fell unimpeded into her hands. Unsurprisingly, the Tigers had a hard time stopping her, as she got seemingly every offensive and defensive rebound when in the game.
With three seconds left in the half, Trinity’s #30, J’khya Jordan, made a great play to jump an inbounds pass and get off a layup right before the buzzer. Unfortunately, Hollins was still up by double digits by this time, 45-34.
The second half was mostly non-competitive. Hollins took a 20-point lead after Gutierrez made a close shot after an offensive rebound, and Trinity never got closer than 20 after that.
For Hollins, the 6’4” Funderburk ended the contest with 17 points and 16 rebounds (including 9 on offense) as Hollins outrebounded Trinity 68-29(!).
For the Tigers, Taryn Yancey had a really good game, with 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals.
Final: Hollins 82, Trinity Washington 59
When I write about basketball, I take notes on my phone during the game so I can recall the interesting moments and notable players when I go to my laptop later. While writing, I pull up the official box score and play-by-play to get stat totals, names of players, and anything I may have forgotten to jot down.
Somehow, in all my notes about this game, I never mentioned Hollins’ #21, Cabria Mutz. This is strange, since the box score says she scored 26 points and nabbed 23 rebounds, a new single-game school record. Looking at her picture, I definitely remember seeing her during the game, I just never realized the impact she had on it. Whoops.
Sorry Cabria.
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