TCJ Eagles Men's Basketball fended off a near 18-point comeback thanks to clutch shooting from the field and at the line in the final two minutes, and the Eagles held on to defeat Toccoa Falls College 93-88 in the South Region Semifinal on Friday. With the win, Trinity advances to the South Region final to face Bob Jones University at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

In the final 2:01 after Toccoa stormed back to make the score 80-78, Maximus Fuentes pulled in a crucial offensive rebound. Diego Fernandez completed the possession with a jump shot to get the lead back up to 4. Tayden Owens stole the ball on Toccoa's ensuing possession, and Fernadez connected again from midrange to make the lead 6. Toccoa Falls, though, did not quit. Raheem Kone and Randall Robinson each hit a free throw within 8 seconds of each other, and Trinity's lead was 84-80 with 1:09 remaining. No further scoring happened for the next 41 seconds. 

DJ Thompson and Fernandez each drew fouls with 28 and 21 seconds left, respectively, and all four shots went in to make the score 88-82. After an out-of-bounds, a long inbound pass to Thompson drew a flagrant foul. Thompson hit the foul shot, and on Trinity's ensuing inbound pass, Fernandez drew a foul and made both shots to make it 91-82.

Toccoa's Robonson drew a foul and made the first shot. An offensive deadball rebound on the second shot gave Toccoa another opportuity, and Grady Jones was fouled while attemptiong a three-pointer. Jones made all three foul shots. Fernandez responded with 2 more free throws at the other end, and the game ended on a Toccoa layup. 

Toccoa Falls shrank an 18-point deficit with 7:16 left to play down to two at 80-78 with 2:22 left before the Fuentes grabbed that crucial rebound. 

The two teams played even basketball for the entire first half, staying within single digits of each other for the entire 20 minutes. Sherrard Adams's three-pointer gave Trinity a 9-point lead with 5:44 left in the half, but Toccoa Falls outscored Trinity 11-2 to close out the half and tie the score at 38-all at the intermission. The game featured 7 ties and 9 lead changes, mostly in the first half. 

Fernandez led all scorers with 29 points, and Owens and TFC's Will Gray-Watson tied for second with 24. Fernandez was 8 for 17 from the field and 13 for 14 at the line. Owens was 9 for 17 from the field with 4 three-pointers and 2 for 2 at the line. Overall Trinity shot 50% from the field, including 57% in the second half, with 8 three-pointers and hit 25 of 29 free throws. Toccoa Falls shot 48%, hit 6 threes, and made 23 of 36 free throws. Gray-Watson was 7 for 12 from the field with 2 three-pointers and 8 for 9 at the line. 

Alex Dawson scored 10 (2 three-pointers) while Jayden Little totaled 9, Thompson finished with 8, Brandon Hill contributed 5, Adams and Adrian Walker each had a 3-pointer, and Fuentes scored 2 very important points. Trinity outrebounded Toccoa Falls 34-28 with 10 different TCJ Eagles pulling in rebounds. 

In addition to Gray-Watson, Toccoa Falls got double figures from Kone (17), Jaylon Seymore (12), Tyriq Brown (10), and Robinson (10).

Trinity will play Bob Jones at 4:00 p.m. for the South Region Championship. The game will stream linve on Toccoa Falls College's NCCAA Network channel.