MENTONE - Valley had the height and inside muscle, Triton had the quickness and outside shooting ability. Quickness and dead-eye accuracy won out. Saturday night, the Triton Trojans salvaged a 1-1 weekend by making eight three-pointers in coming from behind in the second half to knock off Valley 56-51.

The Trojans made the comeback on the shoulders of senior guard Andy Westafer. He scored 23 points, 16 in the second half, and knocked down four three-pointers as Triton came from seven down in the third quarter for win number five on the season. Westafer added six rebounds and a pair of steals during the game.

"Andy has had his problems this year and he's had his downs," Triton head coach Kevin O'Rourke said. "There's no greater kid to have his ups. I'm so proud of him, he stepped up. We've talked all year about needing a kid to step up in the fourth quarter and make a shot for us and he was able to provide that lift for us."

An Eric Prater layup with 2:14 to play in the third period gave Valley a commanding 33-26 lead. But on successive trips, Westafer nailed a three-pointer and then scored on a layup to cut the lead to two points. Mason McIntyre added a three-point play, and the Trojans trailed just 35-34 heading into the fourth quarter.

Westafer opened the fourth with another three-pointer, but Valley went on a 7-2 run to retake a 42-39 lead.

Matt Savill, who is often Triton's best three-point shooter, knocked in a basket from long range to knot the game at 42-42, and sophomore guard Austin Unterbrink scored on a three-point play as the Trojans went ahead 45-44.

The game continued to bounce back-and-forth until Westafer made his final bomb of the night to give Triton a 50-48 advantage with two minutes to play. Savill followed with a pair of free throws before Valley's Maurice Looman connected on a three-point play to make the score 52-51 with 1:15 to play.

But Triton held the ball until Valley decided to foul. Westafer made a pair of free throws with 17 seconds to play and Unterbrink added another two with five seconds left to close out the scoring.

"We had poor execution on offense," Valley head coach Gregg Sciarra said. "Defensively, we didn't fight through picks and screens and let them have too many open looks to shoot the three."

Triton was given enough chances to launch 20 three-pointers on the game. This game showed that if you give the Trojans that many chances, odds are you're going to be in for a long night.

This game also featured a match-up of sophomore point guards - Austin Unterbrink and Noah Silveus. When the dust cleared, both players had five assists, but Unterbrink scored 11 points to just four for Silveus.

The Vikings did have a few positives. Looman scored a career-high 17 points and added eight rebounds and three blocked shots. He also made five of six free throws, not bad for a center.

Also, JayDee Parker had another double-double with 17 points and 11 boards. After being stifled in the first half, he had 10 points and nine rebounds in the final 16 minutes.

"We've had a lot of opportunities where we've been in games late," O'Rourke said. "Here lately, as we've fallen behind in the second half, we've gone, 'Here it goes again.' Tonight, that attitude didn't crop up at all. I'm going to enjoy this one, this is nice."

Triton (5-12) will host Knox on Thursday, while Valley (5-12) will play at Oak Hill on Wednesday. [[In-content Ad]]