BOURBON - After the Triton Trojans won their 10th in a row at home, after they upped their record to 9-2, after they beat Caston 64-57 Friday, head coach Kevin O'Rourke was asked the question.

Do you think people respect your basketball team yet?

"I would think teams are looking and wondering," O'Rourke said. "If I were playing us, I would respect us. But I respect our opponents, too."

Like Caston.

Triton beat Caston 75-59 in a tournament in December, but Caston entered last night's game with a 7-3 record. The Comets and sharpshooter Luke Zartman showed right away they aimed to keep this one close.

Zartman made 3 of 5 three-pointers and scored 15 after two quarters, helping Caston earn a 31-30 halftime lead.

O'Rourke gave his team a message at halftime: the offense was stagnant, the defense not up to par.

The players heard the message. The Trojans moved in their motion offense and defended with more aggressiveness the second half.

Cory Monesmith scored 10 in the third and gave Triton a 43-38 lead with 2:03 left in the quarter. Caston trimmed the lead to 45-43 with four seconds to go and appeared to have the momentum going into the fourth.

Appearances, we all know, can be deceiving.

Triton point guard Jeff Rupe dribbled pell-mell up court, wove his way through a thicket of defenders and pumped up a three as time ran off the clock.

Kaboom.

Triton led 48-43 going into the fourth. Triton's Philip Reed took over from there.

"That's nice to end the quarter with a big shot like that," O'Rourke said. "They hit a shot to make it look they have the momentum, then we come down and hit an even bigger shot and steal the momentum right back.

"That's important. You don't want them to go into the fourth quarter with that big burst."

Reed's back-to-back three-pointers pushed Triton in front 54-45 with 4:44 left in the game. The Trojans led by six or more the rest of the way.

"I thought those were the biggest plays in the game from an offensive standpoint," O'Rourke said. "That finally gave us a little bit of breathing room."

Defensively, Triton's Bill Salyer hounded Zartman the second half. After scoring 15 the first half, he tallied eight the second half.

"Zartman had 15 the first half," O'Rourke said. "He carried them. Billy stepped up the second half and played better defense and held him down to eight. That was big.

"Our focus was to shut down Zartman, make him put it on the floor and shoot off the dribble. Don't let him catch and shoot. He had to many wide open looks the first half."

The second half was just a whole lot better, O'Rourke said.

"Defensively, guys stepped up and defended their better players," he said. "Offensively, our movement was much better second half."

Monesmith led Triton with 21 points, and Reed added 19.

Yes, O'Rourke said, he thinks his team may be starting to get recognition. Remember, Triton basketball and losing were bedfellows for several years. Now the Trojans are winning. They had 18 votes in the latest Associated Press poll. Then there is the win streak at home, the one they will try to extend to 11 tonight against Wawasee.

"I like to see our kids get the attention, because they deserve it," he said. "But it's almost a Catch-22, because they start to read their press clippings. I think that happened the first half. This was as big of a week as any, getting votes in the state poll.

"What our players have to understand is what people remember in the long run is not how many points they score, but how many wins they get. We talked about that at halftime. Our team play was much better the second half." [[In-content Ad]]