BOURBON -ÊFlash back to the Culver Holiday Tournament.

Knox defeated Triton 69-64 in the championship game after Triton had a less-than-stellar performance in the first quarter.

Then flash forward to Thursday night in Bourbon.

Triton and Knox met again, but this time it was for third-place in the Northern State Conference. Again Triton had a slow first quarter and fell to No. 4 (2A) Knox by less than ten points, 61-57.

Knox jumped out to a 7-0 lead after the Trojans failed to score in the first four minutes of play. Triton's first bucket came at the 3:50 mark when Jim Read connected for two points. But Brandon Webb answered that basket with two three-pointers of his own to increase the Redskin advantage to 13-2.

By the end of the quarter, Knox had jumped out to a 19-6 lead.

However, the second quarter was nothing like the first. After hitting just 3 of 12 shots from the field in the first frame (25 percent), the Trojans got fired up and made 6 of 13 baskets to shoot 46 percent from the field in the second stanza.

With 2:00 left in the second quarter, Triton was down 32-20, but the Trojans made a run to end the half. Rob Salyer hit both ends of a one-and-bonus at the 2:00 mark, and Brandon Zeider nailed two baskets in the final minute to slice Knox's lead to six at the half, 32-26.

Then the Triton squad took that momentum into the third quarter. The Trojans capitalized on Knox tunrovers and went on a 10-0 streak to take a four-point lead over the Redskins with 5:32 left in the third frame. Brian Kilingerman was 5-of-5 shooting in the quarter to help the Trojans take their first lead of the contest.

Triton went ahead by six points (44-38) with 2:32 left in the third, but Knox refused to give in. Webb and Jason Dulin combined to score the last eight points of the third quarter and give Knox a 46-44 lead going into the final eight minutes of play.

Zeider hit the first basket of the fourth quarter to tie the score at 46, and Triton took a two-point lead, 51-49, at the 4:03 point.

Corey Clemons and Webb scored the next six points to give Knox a 55-51 lead with 28.7 seconds left. In the last 28.7 seconds, Triton and Knox both scored six points to make the final score 61-57 in favor of the Redskins.

"I thought we started off shaky," said Triton coach Joe Bennett. "When you play a good team like Knox, that's difficult to overcome."

Brandon Zeider led the Trojans with 14 points, nine rebounds and two steals while Brian Klingerman added 12 points and nine rebounds.

However, the standout of the night was Webb. He was 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe while pulling down five rebounds and grabbing two steals for Knox. All totaled, Webb scored 32 of Knox's 61 points.

"Webb averages about 27 points a game," said Knox Coach Todd Boldry. "He scored 27 in our last game against New Prairie. He's an offensive machine when he's in the zone."

Knox improves to 16-2 and 4-2 in the NSC while Triton falls to 10-8 overall and 3-3 in the NSC. The Trojans will travel to Culver Feb. 25 for another NSC matchup.

KNOX 61, TRITON 57

Knox 19 13 14 15 - 61

Triton 6 20 18 13 - 57

Triton FG FT R S Pts.

*Zeider (G) 6-12 2-2 9 2 14

*Potter (F) 1-4 3-4 1 0 7

*Blackford (G) 0-2 0-0 0 1 0

*Salyer (F) 2-5 2-2 2 2 6

*Klingerman (C) 6-11 0-2 9 0 12

Read 2-4 0-1 2 2 4

Burnett 1-6 2-3 1 2 5

Unterbrink 2-5 2-2 2 0 6

Bell 1-1 2-3 0 0 4

Totals 21-51 14-18 26 10 57

Knox FG FT R S Pts.

*Davis (G) 0-1 0-0 3 4 0

*Ritchie (G) 1-3 6-6 2 0 8

*Dulin (F) 2-4 0-0 4 1 4

*Clemons (G) 1-6 4-4 0 1 6

*Webb (F) 12-23 6-7 5 2 32

Minix 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Binkley 3-7 2-2 0 1 8

Greer 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 19-44 18-19 14 10 61

Three-point goals -ÊTriton 1-7 (Zeider 0-1, Burnett 1-5, Blackford 0-1), Knox 5-13 (Davis 0-1, Ritchie 0-1, Dulin 0-2, Clemons 0-2, Webb 5-7). Turnovers -ÊTriton 13, Knox 20. Total fouls -ÊTriton 18, Knox 18.

TRITON 27, KNOX 22

Triton scoring -ÊDisher 10, Boyer 44, Roberts 4, Sauer 3, Christian 2.

Knox scoring -ÊMoore 6, Fosler 4, Lawrence 9, Sponagle 3. [[In-content Ad]]