CULVER - Heading into the Culver Holiday Tourney, the Triton Trojans boys basketball team was looking to focus on winning its second consecutive Tourney championship.

Step one would be a tough task: They would have to beat the 3-1 Caston Comets, a team they defeated in the championship game last year 44-38.

The first quarter proved to be what people came to see, a tight back-and-forth game. In the quarter, there were several lead changes. After Triton tied the game at 5-5, Caston went on a quick 4-0 run to take a 9-5 lead. Caston ended up leading 11-9 after getting nice jump shots from Eric Walsh and Bo Hines.

After a tight start, the Trojans began to heat up. Triton went on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter, and they took a 16-11 lead with 4:10 to play. After nearly shutting the Comets out for the first five minutes of play, the Comets finally scored on a Tim Bowyer lay-up that closed the lead to 16-13.

"We did a great job defensively on Caston,' Triton coach Joe Bennett said. "We just played just great team defense. We forced them into some things they didn't want to do.'

The Trojans then went on another run, this time a 5-0 run to up their lead to 21-13. Brandon Zeider's three-pointer was a huge shot. Triton headed into halftime with a 24-15 advantage.

The second half was all Triton. In the third quarter, the Trojans had runs of 4-0 and 5-0 to lead by 14 after three at 35-21.

After digging themselves a huge hole, Caston went on a quick 9-0 run to cut the lead to 41-30 with 4:45 to play, but good free-throw shooting down the stretch was too much for the Comets to handle. Triton came up with a huge win and now is one win away from repeating as Culver Holiday Tourney champions.

"Knox is a very tough team,' Bennett said "It will be a very challenging game for us. They are big, fast, they play hard, and they can shoot. It is going to take four very good quarters to beat them.'

Triton got a lot of contributions out of a lot of players. Joey Potter led the Trojans with 12 points. Zeider added 11 points, five rebounds and six assists. Austin Unterbrink also added seven points.

"We got a lot of people involved tonight.' Bennett said. "If we are going to have a good season, we are going to have to have a lot of people help out.'

Bo Hines led Caston with 12 points, and Tim Bowyer added 10.

With the win, Triton moves on to the championship game, where they will face 5-1 Knox, a 75-43 winner over host Culver.

TRITON 50, CASTON 39

Caston (3-2) 11 4 6 18 - 39

Triton (4-3) 9 15 11 15 - 50

Caston FG FT A S R Pts.

Bowyer (G) 5-12 0-0 1 1 5 10

Walsh (G) 2-10 1-2 1 1 3 5

Hines (F) 5-17 1-1 1 0 5 12

Kistler (F) 0-1 0-0 0 0 3 0

Craig (C) 1-4 0-0 1 0 9 2

Boldry 3-6 0-0 1 1 1 6

Wilson 2-6 0-0 2 0 3 4

Totals 18-55 2-3 7 3 29 39

Triton FG FT A S R Pts.

Unterbrink (G) 1-1 5-6 3 1 3 7

Blackford (G) 2-4 0-1 4 1 0 4

Potter (F) 5-8 2-4 0 0 4 12

Zeider (F) 4-11 2-4 6 1 5 11

Klngrmn (C) 1-5 0-0 0 0 2 2

Bell 1-2 1-2 1 1 3 3

Burnett 1-5 0-0 3 0 1 3

Saylor 1-4 0-0 0 0 2 2

Read 3-6 0-2 1 0 7 6

Moore 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 19-47 10-19 17 4 27 50

Three-point goals -ÊCaston 1-11 (Himes 1); Triton 2-6 (Burnett 1, Zeider 1) Turnovers- Caston 15; Triton 11. Total fouls -ÊCaston 16; Triton 13. Fouled out -ÊCaston (Walsh, Boldry).

First game: Knox 75, Culver 43 [[In-content Ad]]