BOURBON -ÊThe Triton girls team moved to 11-3 on the season by outlasting a tough and scrappy Glenn team 51-48 on Friday night. The Trojans came into the game shorthanded as they were missing senior guard Gina Westafer.

Not only did this put more pressure on leading scorer and all-state candidate Ashli Senff, but it put more strain on Triton's role players. Angie Wilcox and Ashley Zelt each scored six points. Junior Carly Feldman made her presence felt on the boards as she netted eight for the Trojans.

Triton coach Mark Heeter was more than aware of the contributions of his team's "X factors", a term in basketball that was coined by former Bulls' coach and current Laker head man, Phil Jackson. Jackson used the phrase to describe a player who uncharacteristically contributes to a game.

"We were shorthanded tonight with Gina Westafer still out with injury," said Heeter "If either of them (Wilcox and Zelt) don't score their six points tonight, then we don't win."

Despite the contributions of role players, all eyes in the gym were focused on Senff. Friday night's game saw Senff struggle from the field. But she made it up in other ways. Senff finished with 24 points on 8-of-17 shooting with 14 rebounds, five steals, and four assists.

Senff lurked in the shadows in the first quarter. She allowed her teammates to get into the flow of the game before she did.

At times, Senff is unselfish to a fault, and that showed early on. Shaky plays and turnovers left the Trojans with a 12-8 deficit after eight minutes.

Triton committed seven first-quarter turnovers, which led to easy points for the Falcons.

The second quarter saw Senff move to the forefront and thrust Triton into the 23-19 halftime lead. Wilcox scored all six of her points on three rainbow jumpers, sparking her teammates and the crowd.

The third quarter saw both teams battle back and forth, with Triton gaining the small edge to extend its lead to seven, 40-33.

Senff continued her dominance as she scored 10 of her game-high 24 in the third period.

The Trojans looked ready to put Glenn away early in the fourth quarter, extending their lead to as much as 14 with 5:43 left.

They were unable to land the death knell and allowed the scrappy Falcon team to fight back.

"We really had a chance in that fourth quarter to put them away at one point and we didn't do it. It made the game a lot more interesting," said Heeter. "But I thought we did a good job as a team of battling and coming out with the victory. This one is a big one for us and I'm proud of the effort."

Triton turned the ball over with 1:31 left and Glenn quickly capitalized as Ami Kretchmer nailed a three-pointer to cut the Trojan lead to 50-48.

Triton ran the clock down to 27.8 seconds before the Falcons fouled Ashlee Westafer. Westafer struggled from the field going 0 for 4 but nailed 1 of 2 free throws to extend the lead to 51-48.

Glenn looked to answer, but freshman Rachel Wilkinson's jumper barely connected with iron Senff was there for the board. She passes the ball to Westafer who looked to thread the needle but the pass was deflected and the ball got tied up.

With only 0.9 seconds left Triton only needed to inbound the ball to seal the game. Glenn came up with the steal on the inbounds play but was unable to get a shot off in the small amount of time remaining.

Triton is now 11-3 and 4-0 in the NSC. The Trojans have a weeks' rest before hosting another conference foe in Culver next Saturday. [[In-content Ad]]