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BOURBON - Triton girls basketball coach Mark Heeter smiled as he returned the favor.
After the Triton girls won the sectional championship with a win over Culver, Triton boys coach Joe Bennett congratulated Heeter with a firm handshake and a few inspiring words.
Friday night after the boys team beat Argos 55-48, giving them their first sectional championship in Triton High School history, Heeter found Bennett talking to reporters and returned the gentlman-like gesture.
The two came to the conclusion that the last time Triton's boys basketball team won a sectional title was somewhere around 1965 and the school was named Bourbon High School. Obviously this is also the first time the boys and girls teams have won sectional crowns in the same year.
"They're not the best athletes," said Bennett, "but they work hard and play together. In the second half of the season the seniors have really shown some leadership, especially the last two weeks."
Said senior Matt Savill: "This means the world to us. This has been a dream since we were freshman. My teammates, they've done everything. We gel together really well."
Savill recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Teammate Brandon Zeider added 13 points and six rebounds. Argos was led by Chris Kessler's 13 points. Scott Bailey added 11 in the Dragons' season finale.
Triton's defense held Argos senior Caleb Andrews to just three points on 1-of-9 shooting (11.1 percent) from the field. Coming into the sectional Andrews averaged 15.4 points per game.
"He's a heady player," said Bennett of Andrews. "We wanted to get a body on him and make them shoot over us."
As a team, the Dragons shot 18 of 46 (39.1 percent) from the field. Triton was only a tad bit better as it made good on 14 of 33 (42.4 percent) field goal attempts. The Trojans made but one field goal in the fourth quarter and four in the second half.
The game was won at the free-throw line.
"You better hit your free throws in the fourth quarter," said Bennett. "Nothing is easy. They were tough on us. It (number of free throws) looks good. I'm glad they went in."
For the game, Triton made good on 25 of 31 (80.6 percent) free throw attempts as the Dragons were whistled for 25 fouls. The Trojans were 18 of 22 from the charity stripe in the final eight minutes. Triton committed 20 fouls and Argos was just 8 of 16 from the charity stripe in the game.
Jim Read scored four of Triton's first six points, and the Trojans jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead. After three-pointers from Savill and Schuyler Stutzman and two more points from Read, Triton led 15-4 after one quarter of play.
"I've been impressed with our kids' preperation," said Bennett. "And that continued tonight. I thought we had a great start."
Said Argos coach Doug Snyder: "I was very surprised. The idea was to make them turn the ball over. But they were sharp and in a comfortable shooting rhythm. They did a nice job."
The Trojans committed 20 turnovers for the game after turning the ball over just seven times the night before. Argos was victim to 19 turnovers.
Triton led 35-25 at the onset of the fourth quarter before Bill Robertson nailed a three-pointer to cut the 10-point deficit to seven. Zeider accounted for Triton's only fourth-quarter field goal at the 3:04 mark to push the lead to 45-33. Argos outscored the Trojans 15-10 the rest of the way but Triton's 18 of 22 fourth-quarter free throw performance was just too much for Argos to overcome.
Triton (14-9) will play Morgan Township Saturday in the Warsaw Regional. Morgan Township advanced after beating LaCrosse 58-52.
TRITON 55, ARGOS 48
Triton 15 12 8 20-55
Argos 4 14 7 23-48
Triton FG FT S R Pts.
Bell 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Unterbrink (G) 0-3 7-9 2 1 7
Blackford 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Savill (G) 4-9 4-4 1 10 13
Heckaman 0-0 2-2 0 0 2
Salyer 1-3 1-2 0 4 3
Stutzman 2-4 2-2 0 3 7
Zeider (F) 4-7 5-6 2 4 13
Clauss 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Hayes 0-3 0-0 0 1 0
McIntyre (F) 1-1 1-2 1 2 3
Sauer 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Read (C) 2-3 3-4 0 2 7
Totals 14-33 25-31 6 28 55
Argos FG FT S R Pts.
Robertson 3-7 2-4 1 3 10
Blanch 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
VanVactor 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Kessler (G) 4-9 4-4 2 2 13
Longstreth (G) 1-2 0-0 0 1 2
Bailey (G) 5-11 1-5 3 5 11
Hulse 0-1 0-0 1 1 0
Warren (C) 3-5 1-3 0 7 7
Braasch 0-1 0-0 0 2 0
Andrews (F) 1-9 0-0 0 1 3
Stewart 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Shafer 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 18-46 8-16 7 29 48
Three-pointers - Triton 2 (Savill, Stutzman), Argos 4 (Robertson 2, Kessler, Andrews). Turnovers - Triton 20, Argos 19. Fouls - Triton 20, Argos 25. Fouled out - Andrews.
Referees - Lance Grubbs, Merlin Nice
