BOURBON - There were certainly offensive highlights, namely senior Griffyn Carpenter's three-point shooting and sophomore Clay Yeo's breakaway dunk, but it was defense and rebounding that led Triton High School's boys basketball team to a 46-39 win over South Central Friday in Class 1A Sectional 50 action.
The second-ranked Trojans, playing on their home floor, trailed 16-5 after one quarter of play, but gave up a total of just eight points in the second and third quarters and built a 40-26 advantage in the fourth quarter before the Satellites made things interesting down the stretch."That's the frustrating part, giving up 16 points in the first quarter," said Triton coach Jason Groves, whose team improved to 19-3 with its 14th-straight win. "I wrote two keys on the board. One was defend, and the other was rebound. I told the kids if they did those things, it would help get our offense going. Give credit to South Central, they played well."
The Satellites played well at times, especially in the first and fourth quarters, but a 32-21 advantage on the boards and a defensive effort that produced 10 steals helped Triton advance to tonight's sectional championship game against Westville.
Westville (11-11) advanced by beating Argos 65-40 in Friday's second semifinal game.
"The first half was about the best half of basketball we've played all year," said first-year South Central coach Dan Warkentien, whose team finished the season with a 12-9 record. "We got off to a great start, then the third quarter we missed some open shots and had some turnovers. We missed some wide-open shots that we made in the first half."
South Central was 10 of 20 from the field in the first half and 8 of 22 in the second half.
The Trojans were 9 of 19 from the field through the first two quarters and 8 of 18 in the final 16 minutes of action.
To go with its defense and rebounding adavtage, Triton outscored the Satellites 5-1 at the free throw line and made 7 of 15 three-pointers, while South Central was just 2 of 13 from the arc.
Carpenter did most of the long-range damage for the Trojans, making good on five of his seven three-point attempts.
Carpenter, the program's all-time leading scorer, scored a team-high 17 points in the win, while Yeo added 11 points and nine rebounds and senior Jordan Everett chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and four steals.
"He only played 17 minutes," Groves said of Carpenter, who also grabbed five rebounds. "That's what he does. Those are high-percentage shots for him and he has the ability to knock them down."
A trey from Carpenter pushed Triton's advantage to 37-24 with 7:02 remaining in the game, and a three-pointer from Everett made it 40-26.
The Satellites didn't roll over and die, however, as they used an 11-0 run to pull within three points when junior Ben Rosebaum hit a three-pointer with 3:37 to play.
Another triple from Everett pushed Triton's lead to 43-37 with 1:47 remaining, and South Central got no closer than four points the rest of the way.
"In the fourth quarter we got close, but we let it get away from us," said Warkentien. "We were right there."
Senior Matt Walker led South Central with a game-high 20 points, while Rosebaum scored six points and seniors Ricky Rigsby and Luke Kitchell added four points each in the loss.
S. Central - Alex Clemons 1-3 0-0 2, Matt Walker 10-21 0-1 20, Ben Rosebaum 2-3 0-0 6, Ricky Rigsby 2-5 0-1 4, Graham Max 0-1 0-0 0, Greg Girard 0-1 0-0 0, Luke Kitchell 2-5 0-3 4, Marcus Kammrath 1-3 1-2 3. Totals 18-42 1-7 39.
Three-pointers - Triton 7 (G. Carpenter 5, Everett 2), S. Central 2 (Rosebaum 2); Rebounds - Triton 32 (Yeo 9), S. Central 21 (Kitchell 6); Turnovers - Triton 14, S. Central 11; Fouls - Triton 11, S. Central 9; Fouled out - none; Records: Triton 19-3, S. Central 12-9.
