BOURBON – Over the last three seasons, the Class 1A No. 4 Triton boys basketball team has only lost two Northern State Conference games, and both have come against the LaVille Lancers. After losing to LaVille 59-55 on Feb. 6, 2009 in Bourbon, the Trojans (13-4, 4-1 NSC) won their next 13 NSC games until the Lancers (10-5, 4-1 NSC) defeated them 48-46 Saturday night in Bourbon. Going against a team featuring a team coached by Michael Edison, with his father Jack Edison, a 545-game winner and two-time state champion at Plymouth High School, on the bench, Triton coach Jason Groves knew his team was going to have to play well. "They're extremely good coaches," Groves said about the Edison tandem. "That has something to do with it I'm sure. We beat them twice last year, and they got us (in 2009). It's just been a battle for us. Michael and I played against each other (in high school), then played together at Bethel (College). He's a very competitive guy, I'm a very competitive guy. We know one thing, we're both going to be prepared for each other. It's just going to be a matter of making plays and executing." Following the win, Michael Edison seemed to think the win was a much bigger upset than Groves did. "They were 9-5, but they struggled early with some young players," Groves said about the Lancers. "Lately, on tape, they were looking really good. So, we knew this was going to be a battle. They're extremely well-coached and do a lot of good things with their guys." The win was LaVille's seventh in eight games, but Edison pegged the victory as one of his team's biggest, as LaVille joined Triton and New Prairie as the only one-loss teams in NSC play. "We move into a tie with, who I think, is the best team in the conference, in Triton," Edison said. "My dad has told me this several times, 'You don't have to be the best team. You don't have to be able to beat a team 10 out of 10 times. It may be one out of 10 or one out of 100, but if it's that one night, that's key.' "We have a lot of respect for Triton," he added. "They're solid. I told the guys before the game, 'We respect them and know what they're going to do, but we aren't going to fear them.'" And the Lancers weren't living in fear Saturday night. Getting off to a 2-0 lead, Triton tied the game at 2-2, but from there-on-out, LaVille never relinquished the lead, holding the Trojans to four first-quarter points. "I thought we got off to a lackluster start," Groves said. "I don't know what it was. Maybe we just lacked a sense of urgency." The biggest threat to LaVille's lead came in the closing seconds, when Triton held the ball, down 48-46. Looking to remain perfect in NSC play, Triton sophomore Tanner Shepherd got an open look at a trey, which was off-target, but senior Zak Shively, junior Seth Glingle and junior Clay Yeo all grabbed offensive boards, but failed to get the tip-ins, helping LaVille get the win. "He's our best three-point shooter, highest percentage, shooting (35 percent) from behind the three-point line," Groves said about Shepherd. "Those are pretty good odds. We'll take that. Then, we got three other shots beyond that. So, we got a three-pointer to win and twos to tie. We just have to take advantage of that." And Edison was aware of how close his team was to having to play a few more minutes to get the win. "Sometimes, the ball bounces your way, or you get the loose balls, or you get the call or you knock in the key free throws," Edison said. "We got some of those things tonight. It was a big win for us." At the free-throw line, LaVille did only make 9 of 17 free throws, but that looked pretty good compared to Triton's 3 of 10, including 0 of 2 in the final 47 seconds, with one of them being the first of a bonus situation with 22 seconds remaining. "That's been a struggle for us all year long," Groves said about his squad's 66-percent free-throw shooting this season. "I've been telling them all year, 'In one game, this is going to bite you in the butt.' It did tonight, definitely. We work on it in practice. We have to get 80 percent in practice. We record 9 out of 10 (in practice), but now when the lights are on, they need to be able to knock them down. We make three more of those, going 60 percent, we win this game. That's how important those little things are. Hopefully, the guys realize that." Shepherd led the Trojans with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting, while Yeo struggled, scoring 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting, although he did haul in a game-high 11 rebounds. "We had some different things that we were going to try to do," Edison said about defending Yeo, who's verballed to play basketball at Valparaiso University. "We were going to try to have two guys on him most of the game. We had about five days to prepare for them, and about three days in practice, but it wasn't working out the best. So, we decided to do that more on a limited basis, but we need to overload towards him and try to force some of their other guys beat us." The plan appeared to work, and coupled with getting timely shots from unexpected players, LaVille got the win. "He has maybe shot two or three (three-pointers) this season, and he made two (tonight)," Edison said about senior Justin Baker's 2-of-2 night from behind the three-point arc. "In practice, shooting around, messing around, he's a pretty decent shooter. It's just not in our game plan, necessarily. I've told him, 'If someone backs off of you a little bit, (shoot).'" The Trojans are in a battle to win the conference. "Hopefully, I'll have their attention a little bit more in practice now," Groves said. "We'll play with a little bit more of a sense of urgency. This hurts. We wanted to go undefeated in the conference, but at the same time, we can still win conference. It depends on how we respond to this. Are we going to respond in a positive way or are we going to respond in a negative way?" Groves will get his first chance to see how his team responds when his team plays another NSC game Thursday at Bremen.
