In Triton's case Tuesday, first would not have been best.

First would have meant Rochester's first win of the season. The Zebras, winless during the regular season, were looking to join their female counterparts who also went winless during the regular part of the schedule, only to win their first in the tournament.

But it wasn't meant to be for Rochester as Triton improved to a 16-5 on the season by pulling away from the Zebras in the second half for a 73-54 win in the second game of the Warsaw Sectional.

"It is a second season," Triton coach Kevin O'Rourke said. "It was a chance for them to vindicate their season. They are starting 0-0 like everybody else. It was a chance for them to get a couple of wins and say we are not an 0-20 team. They are not an 0-20 quality team, they just came up short a few times, and that tends to snowball. That showed in the third quarter. As we made a strong push, they got on their heels. That is a sign of how the season went for them."

The win sets up a showdown with Warsaw (17-4) on Thursday in the sectional semifinals at 7:30 p.m. The small school-big school clash will be appropriate in this tournament, the last of the one-class system in the state.

"They are awfully good," O'Rourke said of Warsaw. "They have a fantastic team and fantastic program. Warsaw has the complete package. It is a difficult matchup when you think about how to stop Warsaw. We have to hope we come in and play very well, execute and stay within ourselves."

After leading only 29-26 at halftime against Rochester, the Trojans came out in the third quarter on a mission not even allow the game to be close at the end. By turning up the defensive pressure, the Trojans created offensive opportunities and cashed in.

After Rochester's Bob Prater hit a layup to make the score 31-30 early in the third, the Trojans went on a 22-6 run, led by Cory Monesmith's 13 points, to lead 63-35. Triton would never look back. Monesmith ended up with 30 points to lead all scorers.

"He gets credit for scoring, but I thought our movement was a lot better in the third period," O"Rourke said. "If you are moving and screening well, good scorers will have a better chance to get open.

"That is what we talked about at halftime," he said. "I give our kids a lot of credit. They came out in the third quarter focused. We wanted to put pressure on them and create some transition baskets. It was a big quarter for us. We took that next step and tried to put them away a little bit."

Triton had the chance to put Rochester away in the second quarter, but couldn't quite get it done. Triton led 27-17 when Rochester's Deric Beck nailed a trey to start the Zebras on a 9-2 run to end the half and give the Zebras some hope going into the locker room.

"We took a mental lapse," O'Rourke said. "That is something that still concerns me. You have to get to a point where we get a lead in the first half, and we put teams away. We got mentally fatigued and gave up a couple of lazy defensive possessions and a couple of offensive possessions where we stood and relied on Cory to shoot from the perimeter."

Led by Monesmith's 30, the Trojans put four players in double figures with Philip Reed nailing four three-pointers for 12, Jeff Rupe getting 11 and Scott Blackford adding 10.

T.J. Dubois led Rochester with nine points before fouling out in the fourth. The Zebras ended the season at 0-21. [[In-content Ad]]