BOURBON – The Triton High School boys basketball team is in a great position to win at least a share of its fourth-straight Northern State Conference title. Entering Thursday night, Triton, Bremen and New Prairie all sat at 4-1 in the NSC. And once the Triton Trojans downed the Bremen Lions 54-37 in the Trojan Trench, and New Prairie defeated LaVille 68-57 in New Carlisle, only two teams were left with one NSC loss. New Prairie’s last NSC game is Feb. 15 at John Glenn (8-8, 3-3 NSC), while Triton’s last conference contest is Feb. 22 at 3-14 Knox, which is 0-6 in the conference. “We just need to take care of ourselves,” Triton coach Jason Groves said. “This was a big game for us, now our next conference game will be a big one for us.” With at least a share of the conference championship all but theirs with a win over Bremen, the Trojans didn’t leave much drama. Limiting the Lions to 15 first-half points, Triton led 27-15 at intermission and Bremen never really threatened in the second half. “(Defense) was one thing I was concerned about, because they can score,” Groves said of the Lions, who came in averaging 57 points per game. “They have guys that can really put it in the hole. That was our main focus coming in. We wanted to get after them defensively.” Bremen’s top offensive threat has been 6-foot-4 senior guard/forward Ethan Pike. Averaging 23.7 points per game, Triton senior Clay Yeo drew the defensive assignment on Pike, limiting him to eight points on 4-of-13 shooting. “He did an excellent job on him,” Groves said of Yeo’s defense on Pike. On top of doing it on defense, Yeo also netted a game-high 22 points, increasing his career total to a Triton all-time best of 1,768. The Valparaiso University-bound Yeo may have led the team in points, but senior Seth Glingle may have been the star, posting 13 points and 10 rebounds. “Seth did a great job with the double-double,” Groves said. Glingle’s 10 boards helped Triton to a 34-19 rebounding advantage, which was something Groves had been harping on. “I talked to the guys about the boards being a big key – defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds,” he said. “I knew they were going to came at us with the Triangle (defense), they did it last year and it was effective. We did a better job with it this year, but one thing we talked about was rebounding out of it. We may miss shots, but they needed to board.” The win is Triton’s fourth-straight since falling to LaVille in the semifinals of the TCU Bi-County Tournament. That loss was the Trojans’ second in three games, but they seem to have regained some swagger. “We’ve been playing defense a little better and been executing a little better,” Groves said. “We still seem to have those lulls and that’s where we’re struggling. It’s not just games, it’s practices as well. We’ll have two good practices, then we’ll have a bad one. We just have to get past that. We have to get past that quarter when we lose our focus. That’s been an area of concern. Hopefully, we’ll get past that. We’re playing better and the kids are little bit more confident and have confidence in each other. Triton’s next contest is Tuesday at home against Rochester, followed three nights later by its final home game of the regular season against Tippecanoe Valley.
