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TRINITY -- Tim Kelly's Trinity basketball team was enjoying a 54-27 lead in the third quarter Wednesday night against visiting Andrews, but the Bulldogs' veteran coach appeared anxious.

From courtside, Kelly tried to light a fire under his players by taking a not-too-subtle verbal swipe at a Randolph County rival that lost to Trinity by 37 points last week.

"Hey, these boys ain't Asheboro!" Kelly bellowed. "They're not going to quit."

Moments later, it was time to get on the referees' case.

"You've got three guys and you didn't see a travel?" Kelly asked an official when one of his players was called for fouling the ball-handler.

He didn't feel safe until about a minute-and-a-half remained in the 77-58 victory, which improved Trinity to 13-0.

"I coach them really hard," Kelly said. "I was maybe a little more animated tonight."

It was nothing the Bulldogs hadn't seen before from the 19-year Trinity coach. He has been working them hard since they started attending his summer camp as sixth-graders.

"Yeah, he does -- every day," junior Josh Pittman said. "He works very hard to prepare us for the games. Practice is usually more intense than the games."

Trinity was 25-3 last year. The Bulldogs beat Dudley for the 2004 state title, a feat this new group of players would love to duplicate. Kelly has gone 363-28 at Trinity not so much because he has had a ridiculous amount of talent, but because he gets his players to buy into his offensive system and disciplined style of defense long before they get to high school.

It's getting to be like Thomasville football. Kids are growing up watching Trinity basketball. They get used to the winning, Kelly said, "and they want to be a part of it."

Trinity started an AAU program several years ago geared toward kids who play -- or would soon play -- basketball at the high school. Kelly coached his current players in AAU when they were in middle school. The father of senior Josh Jones is coaching the high school-age AAU players now.

"We started going to his camps in the sixth grade and getting used to playing with each other," Pittman said. "And it's paying off."

Pittman is Kelly's starting point guard. A News & Record second-team All-Area selection last year, Pittman is also the best 3-point shooter Trinity has seen since Josh King led the Bulldogs to the 2004 state title.

Kelly makes sure to set up opportunities for the 5-foot-11 junior to catch the ball coming off screens for long-range attempts.

Pittman made six 3-pointers on his way to 31 points against Andrews. He made 10 shots from behind the arc in a game last week in Asheboro, where he scored 98 points in three days at the Courier-Tribune Invitational.

The Bulldogs don't have great size inside -- Jones and Zack Williams are about 6-7 -- but everybody rebounds and they're all sound on man-to-man defensive fundamentals.

"They do a good job of not giving you anything easy," Andrews coach James Abell said. "They do a good job of boxing you out, holding you to one shot and making you shoot over somebody at all times. They're not a gambling team; they just make you earn what you get."

Abell is most impressed at how Trinity has so many players who play so well together. He called that unique in high school basketball.

Kelly asks his players to work hard for him and vows to work hard for them in return -- at least for 60 seconds or so.

"The last minute or two, he says he'll win the game if it's close," Pittman said. "He'll win it for us as long as we give it our best."

Contact Jeff Carlton at 373-7065 or jeff.carlton@news-record.com