Culver Ends Triton's Sectional Dominance
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
At intermission, the Triton Trojans (12-8) led the host Culver Cavaliers (15-7) by a score of 25-22, but after getting outscored 17-1 in the third quarter, Triton went on to fall 61-51.
Culver will look to claim its first sectional crown since 2008 when it faces Argos tonight at 7 p.m.
“It’s disappointing,” Triton coach Jason Groves said. “It’s probably the worst half of basketball we’ve played all season long. They did some nice things. (Culver senior Trent) Elliott goes for 40 (points) and we can’t stop him. There’s not much you can do about that. Obviously, the kids are really disappointed. They put in a lot of time and effort. We haven’t been in this position in a while. It’s a new feeling and it’s not a good one.”
Missing his first three shots, Elliott finished with just two points in the first quarter, then netted nine in the second, 13 in the third and 16 in the fourth, finishing with 40 on 13-of-22 shooting while also grabbing nine rebounds.
“Good players rise to the occasion and we needed that,” Culver coach, and father of Trent, Kyle Elliott said. “We had some spells where we didn’t have much going on offensively, and he’d step up and attack the bucket. He just kept willing us to victory.”
Along with getting Elliott going, Culver also got a lesson in toughness at halftime.
Down by three, Culver opened the second half 10-0 run, with the opening eight all being second-chance points, as the Cavs had five offensive rebounds in the opening three-and-a-half minutes of the half.
“We talked at halftime about how we felt that we had been smacked around a little bit on our home floor,” Elliott said. “Our kids just didn’t come out and really fight with our backs to the wall. If you’re going to beat a good team, you’ve got come out swinging, you’ve got to be aggressive and get those second-chance points.”
On top of being more aggressive, Culver also moved to 3-2 zone defense, which baffled Triton into one point on 0-of-8 shooting in the quarter.
“We hadn’t run it all year and we worked on it the past two days,” Elliott said. “We thought it might give them a little trouble. We didn’t work it in the first half, so my assistant coaches Brett Berndt and Tom Krueger said, ‘Hey, let’s break it out and see how they handle it.’”
Triton wasn’t able to handle it, and that was a little baffling to Groves.
“We’ve worked up against that this week (this practice), we’ve worked against a lot of things this week,” he said. “We had some time to prepare, so it wasn’t like our kids didn’t know what we were doing. We just couldn’t make shots out of it. They did a good job of locating our shooter and that’s where we missed (senior guard) Darren Harrell (who was out with a concussion) a little bit. He’s a 45-percent 3-point shooter, so I was a little nervous that they were going to leave some guys open and we weren’t going to be able to hit.”
Once the quarter was over, Triton found itself in a 39-26 hole.
The Trojans appeared to be rallying in the fourth, using a quick 4-0 run to pull within 39-30 and had possession following two missed shots by the Cavs.
Looking to cut even deeper into the Culver lead, Triton junior Joey Corder saw a glimmer and took the ball to the hoop, but Culver senior Jacoda Anderson bodied him to the hoop and rejected the shot.
The Cavs rebounded the blocked shots and outlet it quickly to Elliott, who took it for a layup, igniting a 7-0 run that put Triton away, down 46-30 with 4:04 remaining in the game.
Down the stretch, Culver converted 9 of 15 free throws, as the team was 23 of 31 overall, while Triton made 8 of 10.
With the Culver defense concentrating on Triton senior Tanner Shepherd, who had 15 points on 4-of-17 shooting, sophomore guard Jordan Anderson had a big game, making 4 of 9 three-pointers, going for a team-high 16 points.
“I talked about him in the postgame, because Jordan really dedicated himself to getting better in the offseason,” Groves said of Anderson, who averaged 4.2 points per game during the season. “He really dedicated himself to basketball. Of our underclassmen, he’s the only one I think that truly, truly did that and it shows in his play.”
In his final game for Triton, Shepherd had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals, while his 15 points wrapped up his playing career with 1,117.
Along with it being Shepherd’s final time in a Triton uniform, the same could be said for Dillon Meadway, Seth Flenar, Harrell and Bryce Wanemacher.
“They’re great kids,” Groves said. “Tonight was unfortunate for them, but they put in a lot of time and lot of effort. They made our program better.”
CULVER 61, TRITON 51
(Sectional 51, Semifinals)
C 8 14 17 22 – 61
T 17 8 1 25 – 51
Culver – Everett Krueger 1-5 2-2 4, Jordan Sanders 0-1 2-2 2, Preston Hansel 3-7 0-0 6, Trent Elliott 13-22 12-15 40, Jacoda Anderson 1-2 6-10 8, Alex Graham 0-1 1-2 1, Cody Valiquet 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Kresek 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-38 23-31 61.
Triton – Joey Corder 1-4 1-2 3, Jordan Anderson 6-11 0-0 16, Tanner Shepherd 4-17 5-6 15, Dillon Meadway 2-6 2-2 6, Skyler Reichert 4-9 0-0 11, Landon Kaufman 0-0 0-0 0, Bryce Wanemacher 0-0 0-0 0, Masen Yeo 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Sellers 0-1 0-0 0, Seth Flenar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-48 8-10 51.
Three-pointers – Culver 2-6 (Elliott 2), Triton 9-26 (Anderson 4, Reichert 3, Shepherd 2); Team Fouls (fouled out) – Culver 9, Triton 23 (Corder); Turnovers – Culver 12, Triton 10; Rebounds – Culver 34 (Elliott 9, Anderson 9), Triton 22 (Shepherd 7); Assists – Culver 5 (Krueger 2, Anderson 2), Triton 9 (Corder 3); Steals – Culver 4 (Krueger 2), Triton 6 (Anderson 2, Shepherd 2); Blocks – Culver 1, Triton 2.
Records: Culver 15-7, Triton 12-8.[[In-content Ad]]
At intermission, the Triton Trojans (12-8) led the host Culver Cavaliers (15-7) by a score of 25-22, but after getting outscored 17-1 in the third quarter, Triton went on to fall 61-51.
Culver will look to claim its first sectional crown since 2008 when it faces Argos tonight at 7 p.m.
“It’s disappointing,” Triton coach Jason Groves said. “It’s probably the worst half of basketball we’ve played all season long. They did some nice things. (Culver senior Trent) Elliott goes for 40 (points) and we can’t stop him. There’s not much you can do about that. Obviously, the kids are really disappointed. They put in a lot of time and effort. We haven’t been in this position in a while. It’s a new feeling and it’s not a good one.”
Missing his first three shots, Elliott finished with just two points in the first quarter, then netted nine in the second, 13 in the third and 16 in the fourth, finishing with 40 on 13-of-22 shooting while also grabbing nine rebounds.
“Good players rise to the occasion and we needed that,” Culver coach, and father of Trent, Kyle Elliott said. “We had some spells where we didn’t have much going on offensively, and he’d step up and attack the bucket. He just kept willing us to victory.”
Along with getting Elliott going, Culver also got a lesson in toughness at halftime.
Down by three, Culver opened the second half 10-0 run, with the opening eight all being second-chance points, as the Cavs had five offensive rebounds in the opening three-and-a-half minutes of the half.
“We talked at halftime about how we felt that we had been smacked around a little bit on our home floor,” Elliott said. “Our kids just didn’t come out and really fight with our backs to the wall. If you’re going to beat a good team, you’ve got come out swinging, you’ve got to be aggressive and get those second-chance points.”
On top of being more aggressive, Culver also moved to 3-2 zone defense, which baffled Triton into one point on 0-of-8 shooting in the quarter.
“We hadn’t run it all year and we worked on it the past two days,” Elliott said. “We thought it might give them a little trouble. We didn’t work it in the first half, so my assistant coaches Brett Berndt and Tom Krueger said, ‘Hey, let’s break it out and see how they handle it.’”
Triton wasn’t able to handle it, and that was a little baffling to Groves.
“We’ve worked up against that this week (this practice), we’ve worked against a lot of things this week,” he said. “We had some time to prepare, so it wasn’t like our kids didn’t know what we were doing. We just couldn’t make shots out of it. They did a good job of locating our shooter and that’s where we missed (senior guard) Darren Harrell (who was out with a concussion) a little bit. He’s a 45-percent 3-point shooter, so I was a little nervous that they were going to leave some guys open and we weren’t going to be able to hit.”
Once the quarter was over, Triton found itself in a 39-26 hole.
The Trojans appeared to be rallying in the fourth, using a quick 4-0 run to pull within 39-30 and had possession following two missed shots by the Cavs.
Looking to cut even deeper into the Culver lead, Triton junior Joey Corder saw a glimmer and took the ball to the hoop, but Culver senior Jacoda Anderson bodied him to the hoop and rejected the shot.
The Cavs rebounded the blocked shots and outlet it quickly to Elliott, who took it for a layup, igniting a 7-0 run that put Triton away, down 46-30 with 4:04 remaining in the game.
Down the stretch, Culver converted 9 of 15 free throws, as the team was 23 of 31 overall, while Triton made 8 of 10.
With the Culver defense concentrating on Triton senior Tanner Shepherd, who had 15 points on 4-of-17 shooting, sophomore guard Jordan Anderson had a big game, making 4 of 9 three-pointers, going for a team-high 16 points.
“I talked about him in the postgame, because Jordan really dedicated himself to getting better in the offseason,” Groves said of Anderson, who averaged 4.2 points per game during the season. “He really dedicated himself to basketball. Of our underclassmen, he’s the only one I think that truly, truly did that and it shows in his play.”
In his final game for Triton, Shepherd had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals, while his 15 points wrapped up his playing career with 1,117.
Along with it being Shepherd’s final time in a Triton uniform, the same could be said for Dillon Meadway, Seth Flenar, Harrell and Bryce Wanemacher.
“They’re great kids,” Groves said. “Tonight was unfortunate for them, but they put in a lot of time and lot of effort. They made our program better.”
CULVER 61, TRITON 51
(Sectional 51, Semifinals)
C 8 14 17 22 – 61
T 17 8 1 25 – 51
Culver – Everett Krueger 1-5 2-2 4, Jordan Sanders 0-1 2-2 2, Preston Hansel 3-7 0-0 6, Trent Elliott 13-22 12-15 40, Jacoda Anderson 1-2 6-10 8, Alex Graham 0-1 1-2 1, Cody Valiquet 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Kresek 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-38 23-31 61.
Triton – Joey Corder 1-4 1-2 3, Jordan Anderson 6-11 0-0 16, Tanner Shepherd 4-17 5-6 15, Dillon Meadway 2-6 2-2 6, Skyler Reichert 4-9 0-0 11, Landon Kaufman 0-0 0-0 0, Bryce Wanemacher 0-0 0-0 0, Masen Yeo 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Sellers 0-1 0-0 0, Seth Flenar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-48 8-10 51.
Three-pointers – Culver 2-6 (Elliott 2), Triton 9-26 (Anderson 4, Reichert 3, Shepherd 2); Team Fouls (fouled out) – Culver 9, Triton 23 (Corder); Turnovers – Culver 12, Triton 10; Rebounds – Culver 34 (Elliott 9, Anderson 9), Triton 22 (Shepherd 7); Assists – Culver 5 (Krueger 2, Anderson 2), Triton 9 (Corder 3); Steals – Culver 4 (Krueger 2), Triton 6 (Anderson 2, Shepherd 2); Blocks – Culver 1, Triton 2.
Records: Culver 15-7, Triton 12-8.[[In-content Ad]]
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