Trinity Academy cruises into tournament title game at El Dorado
When coach and athletic director Steve Miller decided to leave for Arkansas after last season, Trinity Academy used a transition game of sorts to maintain the success it had under Miller.
Enter Chance Lindley, a standout during his playing career at Sunrise Christian whose coaching career in the Wichita area has included coaching girls at both Collegiate and Independent.
So far, that transition game has worked to perfection and resulted in a 11-0 record after the Knights thumped Circle 70-37 on Friday in the Bluestem Classic semifinals.
In Saturday’s final, top-seeded Trinity will take on sixth-seeded Kapaun Mount Carmel, which rebuffed a strong challenge from No. 7 Campus for a 40-38 triumph. Senior Mitchell Woodward’s 24 points paced the Crusaders (4-6).
Trinity wasted no time establishing itself, taking the lead on a three-pointer by senior Jacob Baker 12 seconds into the game – one of nine Trinity three-pointers – and building it to 20-10 after the first quarter.
The Knights stymied Circle (4-6) with a perplexing zone defense that led to many missed shots and turnovers, led 61-24 after three quarters and cruised from there.
Afterward, Circle coach Bo Horyna said the Trinity zone presented problems.
“We haven’t played a lot of good teams who play a lot of zone,” he said. “Their zone is tough, because they’re big and long. When you have quickness and length, your zone is pretty effective.
“Their length hurt us. We’re not a big team. We just don’t have any players (who) have that kind of length, and it bothers us.”
Baker led the Knights with a game-high 19 points, and junior Nate Adler contributed 12. The Thunderbirds were led by nine points each from Dylan Meier and Matt Hromek.
The game was a stark departure from Thursday’s opening round, when the Knights escaped with a 60-58 victory over a scrappy Great Bend team that threatened until the very end.
Lindley said a new day allowed for some refinements over the first game.
“We were more cohesive (Friday); we all played together on both ends of the court,” he said. “Our team stands for defense, and defensively (Friday) I think we were very good as compared to (Thursday).”
The team has adjusted well to the change in coaches this year, Lindley said.
“I feel very blessed,” he said. “It’s an amazing school, great support from administration, parents – and first and foremost, these kids. They are buying in. I think they trust the coaching staff; they know we’re in this together as a family, and it has been a true blessing so far to coach these guys.”
It helps when you’re blessed with 10 of your 12 players standing taller than 6-foot, but it takes more than that.
“It’s nice to have talent, but the key to that is to win games,” he said. “It’s still getting those kids to be unselfish. I know a lot of kids that can score (but) truly these kids do not care about double figures in scoring, who gets the credit. They just truly want to win together and play together.”
Not to mention they can shoot.
“Thank goodness, most nights, yes,” Lindley said.
Lindley could lead by example. During his playing career at Sunrise Christian Academy, he set a Kansas high school record for points in a career, which still stands today.
“Basketball has been very good to me, and I’ve been blessed to have had a good high school career,” he said. “But it’s all about these guys right now, that’s for sure.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Trinity Academy cruises into tournament title game at El Dorado."