Triton Plans To Be Aggressive On Offense
November 26, 2019 at 3:33 a.m.
Triton Plans To Be Aggressive On Offense
By Steve Krah-
That’s the way Trojans head coach Jason Groves sees it as he welcomes back six lettermen to a squad that opens the season Wednesday at Oregon-Davis.
“We’re going to be a little bit more aggressive this year,” says Groves, who holds a career record of 241-102. “We’re going to out the ball up.”
A year ago, the team averaged 39.4 points per game and went 10-15 overall and 3-4 in the Hoosier North Conference. The campaign ended with a IHSAA Class 1A Triton Sectional championship game loss to Argos.
“Last year was kind of strange year,” says Groves. “We were playing young kids. We were not healthy. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong. We’d have guys out for a week at a time. We did not jell or get continuity going until the end of the season.
“We were able to peak at sectional time. We decided ‘we can do this.’ We’ve got to keep working at it. We had momentum going into the off-season. Hopefully, that can carry over.”
Shooting guard Ashton Oviedo led Triton in scoring with 8.4 points per game as a freshman in 2018-19 and is back for his sophomore campaign.
The 5-foot-10 Oviedo will likely be paired in the starting back court with 5-10 sophomore point guard Tyson Yates, who Groves calls “a pretty explosive athlete.” Keegan Westafer, a 6-1 senior who scored at a 5.7 clip last season, is one forward while 5-9 senior Jared Bules (4.0) can play guard or forward.
Triton’s probable starting center is 6-4 senior Tyler Heckaman, who averaged 3.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest as a junior.
“We have to do a better job of getting the ball inside,” says Groves. “We need to look for Tyler and Keagan to score inside a little bit more.
“(Heckman) has a lot more confidence this year.”
Groves would like to see the Trojans get to the foul line more often this season after they shot just 286 free throws in 25 games in 2018-19.
“Last year we were young and dealing with the physicality of the game,” says Groves as one reason Triton tended to play more on the perimeter a year ago and still have the capability with Oviedo (40 3-pointers), Bules (24 3-pointers) and Westhafer (17 3-pointers) being the biggest outside threats. “But our guards need to penetrate and not avoid the contact.”
Coming up from the junior varsity to give the Trojans some front court muscle is 6-foot junior Hunter McIntyre.
“He’s super athletic,” says Groves of McIntyre.
The team will begin the season without 5-10 senior returning letterman Quentin Amsden, who is coming off a football injury and has not practiced with the basketball team yet.
“He’s a quick guard, our emotional leader and good defensively,” says Groves of Amsden. “I really like our guards.”
Six-foot junior John Gardner is in Triton’s back court mix.
“He has long arms and is a good defender,” says Groves of Gardner.
Groves says 6-foot sophomore guard Bruce Johnson is one of the team’s best pure shooters, but he will miss the first part of the season with a broken arm.
To add depth, Groves says 5-9 sophomore Cole McKinney is likely to be the junior varsity point guard and also log minutes with the varsity.
The varsity roster also features 6-1 junior Lucas Cabrera, 6-2 sophomore Connor Large and 5-11 freshman Cameron Shively.
Looking at the early part of the schedule, Groves sees tests right away.
“We don’t have much time to mess around,” says Groves. “We’re going to be thrown to the wolves early.” After the season opener at 1A O-D, there are five straight home games at the “Trojan Trench,” including the first two against 4A Plymouth Dec. 3 and 3A NorthWood Dec. 6.
“(Plymouth and NorthWood) will expose your weaknesses. But that’s good for us. That’s why we play games like that.”
Groves sees the Hoosier North race as wide open.
“There’s no clear-cut favorite,” says Groves. “The teams at the top last year graduated a lot. And the teams at the bottom have a lot back.”
Assisting Groves this season will be Blake Schori, Steve Duff and Taylor Long.
That’s the way Trojans head coach Jason Groves sees it as he welcomes back six lettermen to a squad that opens the season Wednesday at Oregon-Davis.
“We’re going to be a little bit more aggressive this year,” says Groves, who holds a career record of 241-102. “We’re going to out the ball up.”
A year ago, the team averaged 39.4 points per game and went 10-15 overall and 3-4 in the Hoosier North Conference. The campaign ended with a IHSAA Class 1A Triton Sectional championship game loss to Argos.
“Last year was kind of strange year,” says Groves. “We were playing young kids. We were not healthy. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong. We’d have guys out for a week at a time. We did not jell or get continuity going until the end of the season.
“We were able to peak at sectional time. We decided ‘we can do this.’ We’ve got to keep working at it. We had momentum going into the off-season. Hopefully, that can carry over.”
Shooting guard Ashton Oviedo led Triton in scoring with 8.4 points per game as a freshman in 2018-19 and is back for his sophomore campaign.
The 5-foot-10 Oviedo will likely be paired in the starting back court with 5-10 sophomore point guard Tyson Yates, who Groves calls “a pretty explosive athlete.” Keegan Westafer, a 6-1 senior who scored at a 5.7 clip last season, is one forward while 5-9 senior Jared Bules (4.0) can play guard or forward.
Triton’s probable starting center is 6-4 senior Tyler Heckaman, who averaged 3.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest as a junior.
“We have to do a better job of getting the ball inside,” says Groves. “We need to look for Tyler and Keagan to score inside a little bit more.
“(Heckman) has a lot more confidence this year.”
Groves would like to see the Trojans get to the foul line more often this season after they shot just 286 free throws in 25 games in 2018-19.
“Last year we were young and dealing with the physicality of the game,” says Groves as one reason Triton tended to play more on the perimeter a year ago and still have the capability with Oviedo (40 3-pointers), Bules (24 3-pointers) and Westhafer (17 3-pointers) being the biggest outside threats. “But our guards need to penetrate and not avoid the contact.”
Coming up from the junior varsity to give the Trojans some front court muscle is 6-foot junior Hunter McIntyre.
“He’s super athletic,” says Groves of McIntyre.
The team will begin the season without 5-10 senior returning letterman Quentin Amsden, who is coming off a football injury and has not practiced with the basketball team yet.
“He’s a quick guard, our emotional leader and good defensively,” says Groves of Amsden. “I really like our guards.”
Six-foot junior John Gardner is in Triton’s back court mix.
“He has long arms and is a good defender,” says Groves of Gardner.
Groves says 6-foot sophomore guard Bruce Johnson is one of the team’s best pure shooters, but he will miss the first part of the season with a broken arm.
To add depth, Groves says 5-9 sophomore Cole McKinney is likely to be the junior varsity point guard and also log minutes with the varsity.
The varsity roster also features 6-1 junior Lucas Cabrera, 6-2 sophomore Connor Large and 5-11 freshman Cameron Shively.
Looking at the early part of the schedule, Groves sees tests right away.
“We don’t have much time to mess around,” says Groves. “We’re going to be thrown to the wolves early.” After the season opener at 1A O-D, there are five straight home games at the “Trojan Trench,” including the first two against 4A Plymouth Dec. 3 and 3A NorthWood Dec. 6.
“(Plymouth and NorthWood) will expose your weaknesses. But that’s good for us. That’s why we play games like that.”
Groves sees the Hoosier North race as wide open.
“There’s no clear-cut favorite,” says Groves. “The teams at the top last year graduated a lot. And the teams at the bottom have a lot back.”
Assisting Groves this season will be Blake Schori, Steve Duff and Taylor Long.
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