The Presentation College Saints used their long-range shooting to build a lead, then turned to their inside game to preserve it Tuesday night at the Strode Center.

PC nailed 11 three-point field goals in the opening half to build a 21-point lead and pounded the paint in the second half to secure a 96-75 non-conference men’s basketball win over Trinity Bible College.

The visiting Lions bolted out a 28-21 lead and Presentation coach Trevor Flemmer had seen enough. Following a time out, the Saints started nailing long-range shots from all over the floor and soon turned a seven-point deficit into an 11-point lead.

“I don’t think we were very ready to play right out of the gate, so I called that time out right before we went on that run,” Flemmer said. “I got into our guys and said, ‘Hey, this has got to change.’ It obviously lit a fire under their butt a little bit and got them rolling.”

Once the Saints were rolling, they showed no signs of slowing down, adding a 16-2 surge to go along with their 22-4 blitz for a commanding 56-34 advantage.

Reserves Jeremiah Gilyard and DJ Bonds combined for 32 first-half points. The Saints ended up receiving 53 points off their bench in the contest.

“Our team is very talented 1 through 9-10 guys. That’s a big strength of ours,” Flemmer said, “that if our starters aren’t ready to roll, we have some guys on the bench that can help us get rolling, too.”

While PC was connecting from the perimeter, Saints’ center Jackson Becker was a force inside all night. The former Aberdeen Christian standout employed a variety of moves near the basket and Trinity never found an answer.

“They were playing a zone so a big part of that was just us moving the ball really well tonight,” Becker said. “That’s just really tough to guard a big guy down low when you’re moving the ball.”

Becker made nine of 11 shots on the way to 18 points and also hauled down a team-leading eight rebounds.

“That’s Jackson Becker for you,” Flemmer said. “He’s on the court, he’s going to be helping you, whether it’s defensively taking charges or offensively in that 10-15 feet area, he’s very good and skilled with those floaters and things like that. That’s just kind of his game.”

In the second half, PC decided to become more patient and work the ball inside. The Lions, while always within striking distance, were never able to get the margin under double-digits the rest of the way.

The Saints made just one three-pointer in the second half, that coming in the closing 30 seconds of action, as they focused on getting the ball inside.

“We know we can hit shots,” Becker said. “We just wanted to work on getting easier shots down low, getting layups, higher-percentage shots, because you’re not always going to be shooting good against a (zone).”

Bonds led the Saints with 22 points, Gilyard added 18 (all in the first half), and Travez Nix scored 12 (all in the second half).

Trinity Bible received 22 points from Marcellus Mencarini, 18 from Khalil Bolden, and 12 from Josh Stoughton.

The Saints will now head into North Star Athletic Association play this weekend, with road games at Mayville State on Saturday and Minnesota-Morris on Sunday.

While Becker said Tuesday’s win will help, there is still work to be done.

“We can’t be satisfied with this. I think our defense struggled,” Becker said. “We just have to keep pushing to get better, especially with conference coming up here. We have to learn and keep pushing to get to that next level.”

To see a box score of the game, click on the following link:

https://www.pcsaints.com/SIDHelp/fullBoxScores/20/1/2843