INDIANAPOLIS - The Triton Trojans came in as the defending state champs, yet it was the Jac-Cen-Del Eagles who looked like they had been on the game's biggest stage before.
After a sluggish start by both teams, top-ranked Jac-Cen-Del used a 15-4 run in the second quarter and a 26-point effort in the second half by senior Matt Gehl to beat No. 3 Triton 66-55 Saturday in the Class 1A state championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis."I couldn't be happier," said Ja-Cen-Del coach David Bradshaw. "This is 25 years of teaching and coaching, and it's kind of a dream come true. I guess you could call it a great silver anniversary present, not only to me, but the entire community of Jac-Cen-Del."
The Eagles won their last 18 games and finished the season with a 25-2 record and the program's first state championship.
Prior to last week, Jac-Cen-Del had never won a semistate championship in boys basketball.
"This is a team that a coach really learns to enjoy," said Bradshaw. "The players really don't care who scores the points as long as they get the job done. That's kind of been their motto since junior high, a very humble and selfish approach."
The Trojans, who entered Saturday's title tilt with a 24-game win steak against Class 1A opponents, finished the season with a 24-3 record.
"We ran into a pretty good team today," said Triton coach Jason Groves. "They're long, athletic, tall and contested our shots. I think that bothered us, especially in the second quarter. I think we got a little frustrated and lost our focus a little offensively. They're a good ball club, give them credit."
A team that had been shooting an average of 52 percent from the field, Triton struggled to find its touch Saturday.
The Trojans finished the game an uncharacteristic 18 of 61 (30 percent) from the field overall and 8 of 23 (35 percent) from three-point range.
The Eagles outrebounded Triton 42-29.
"That's what they've been doing all year," Groves said of Jac-Cen-Del's rebounding effort. "Coming into the game, I really didn't want to play zone because I felt they're too good of an offensive rebounding team. I felt that playing man-to-man would allow us to get on the boards a little."
Sophomore Griffyn Carpenter led Triton in scoring with 14 points, while seniors Colton Keel and Joel Meister chipped in with 12 points each.
Keel pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds for the Trojans.
Sophomore Austin Davis contributed eight points and five rebounds for Triton.
While Triton's three leading scorers - Carpenter (16 points per game), Keel (15) and Meister (13) - finished the game near their average, the problem was the trio was a combined 12 of 46 from the field.
"I'm glad we made it (to state) this year with these guys," said Keel, a three-year starter for the Trojans. "It shows we're fighters and that we know what it takes to win. We went 5 of 27 (as a team) in the first half today. That was probably the biggest killer. If we had hit half those shots, we probably could have been in it the whole time."
Both teams struggled shooting the ball in the early going. Jac-Cen-Del's Tim Arnett scored the first points of the game with 3:30 remaining in the first quarter.
The Eagles took a 6-5 lead into the second quarter, and later used a 15-4 run to claim a 25-13 lead at halftime.
"Not when I saw the defensive effort by our team," Bradshaw said when asked if he was concerned by his team's early offensive struggles. "Our defense in the the first quarter was absolutely tremendous, everything was to perfection almost. The No. 1 things is, we really contested shots today. I bet we really contested 80 percent of their shots."
Jac-Cen-Del finished the game 24 of 46 (52 percent) from the field overall and 3 of 7 from three-point range.
The Eagles made 15 of 24 free throw attempts, while the Trojans were 11 of 13 at the charity stripe.
After missing all four of his field goal attempts and being held scoreless in the first half, Gehl made his presence felt in the third and fourth quarters.
The 6-foot-2 senior, who also pulled down 11 rebounds in his team's 11-point win, made 10 of 11 shots in the second half. At one point, he made eight-straight attempts.
"Coach Bradshaw told me to keep my head up and let the game come to me," said Gehl, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player. "That's what I did, and I started scoring. I started pulling up for jump shots instead of trying to take it all the way. Let it come to me, I kind of did that"
Senior Blake Sutton added 19 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Eagles, while senior Gerald Hardesty chipped in with eight points and six rebounds.
Hardest was the recipient of the Arthur L. Trester Award for mental attitude.
"Obviously it's a great honor," said Hardesty. "Even just to be nominated was a great honor. It's great for our school, too."
Sophomore Trevor Arnett finished with seven points and 11 rebounds. He also accounted for four of Jac-Cen-Del's nine blocked shots.
Triton trailed 46-27 after three quarters of play but trimmed the deficit to nine, 53-44, with a three-pointer by Carpenter with 3:23 remaining.
The Trojans could have cut the lead to six shortly thereafter, but Triton turned the ball over. After scoring 27 points in the first 24 minutes of the game, the Trojans scored 28 points in the final eight minutes.
"That's what this team was about," Groves said when asked about his team fighting its way back into the game. "They always put forth the effort. In the offseason, these kids worked so hard. We talked at the beginning of the season about not letting our expectations go down after last year. These kids waited patiently for their opportunity to come. And when it came, they really took advantage of it."
While Triton's roster featured players that were part of the team's state-championship run last year, the Trojans returned just one starter - Keel.
Still, Triton won its first 15 games of the season and spent a portion of this season ranked No. 1 in the Class 1A poll.
Prior to Saturday, the Trojans' only losses this season were to conference rival Bremen, a 2A school, and Rochester, which fell 81-79 in double overtime to undefeated and top-ranked Princeton in Saturday's Class 3A state championship game.
