GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Concordia Texas men's basketball team outscored Trinity 50-46 in the second half, but it too large of a deficit to overcome, falling to the Tigers 95-82 in the season opener on Saturday at the Southwestern Classic.

The Tornados had 13 players record at least two points, led by the shooting of Antoine Henderson, who had a team-high 10 points on seven shots. Meanwhile, DJ Pigford went 2-of-2 from behind the arc, producing eight points in his collegiate debut.

In the first half, CTX jumped out to an 8-2 advantage early on after Alexander Estrada knocked down one of his two 3-pointers on the day.

Newcomer Sean Phillips had an impressive debut for the Tornados, scoring seven points and securing five rebounds, including a dunk at the 17:17 mark to make it 13-8 in favor of CTX.

The Tornados were plagued with foul trouble throughout the first half though, allowing the Tigers to shoot 27 free throws as they retook the lead at 15-13 with 13:19 to go.

Concordia Texas kept the deficit to single digits after back-to-back baskets from Henderson to cut it down to 25-23 at the 7:14 mark.

Trinity pulled away though, going on a 19-3 run to take a double-digit advantage and the Tornados headed into the locker room trailing 49-32 at halftime.

In the second half, CTX would face a deficit as large as 28 after a Tigers' basket at the 9:31 mark, but did not go down easily.

The Tornados battled back, thanks to Donovan Stafford's nine second half points and Jaden Ross adding eight points of his own, off the bench.

Concordia Texas forced 15 TU turnovers in the second half, including a steal by Estrada leading to Damian Garcia's layup to cut the Tigers' lead down to 10 with over two minutes to play.

It was as close as the Tornados would reach though, as TU scored five straight points and CTX went on to fall 95-82.

The Tornados will have a quick turnaround, returning to the court on Sunday for a matchup against Southwestern at 4 p.m. inside Robertson Gymnasium in Georgetown, Texas