BOURBON - The atmosphere of a postseason game was in the air, but luckily for the Class A, third-ranked Triton Trojans, it was just a regular season contest.
When Triton senior Joel Meister scored with 3:34 remaining in Tuesday's home game against the Class 3A, fourth-ranked Rochester Zebras, he cut the Zebras' lead to 59-55, igniting the Triton crowd into a frenzy. However, a possession later, Rochester senior Brody Schoen hit a three-pointer, quieting the faithful, and keeping the Trojans at bay, as his team went on to a 70-64 win."They hit shots when they needed to," Triton coach Jason Groves said about Rochester. "When they got open shots, they knocked them down in a stretch. They really hit some clutch shots."
Another clutch shot came from junior Colt Meadows.
With Triton in front 43-41 with 3:28 remaining in the third quarter, Triton senior Colton Keel appeared to have a three-point play coming his way after drawing contact under the basket. Instead, Keel was whistled for an offensive foul, which led for a Meadows' three-pointer 17 seconds later, giving Rochester a boost, and a lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way.
Following a 19-game home winning streak, Triton has now lost two of its last three at home, including Thursday's 45-42 overtime loss to Bremen.
"I thought we competed on a floor, where the opponent is very good," Rochester coach Rob Malchow said of his 15-2 team. "I was proud of the guys for that."
A contest between two highly ranked team, resulted in a large crowd, and a high-level of play.
The player playing at the highest level may have been Rochester senior Bruce Grimm, Jr., who went 11 for 19 from the field, including 4 for 5 from three-point range, en rout to a game-high 26 points.
"Bruce is going to get his points, no matter what," Groves said. "I thought Joel (Meister) did do a pretty good job on him. (Meister) has long arms, which allowed him to contest some shots. It just came to the fact that when he'd drive, we'd give him the lane a little too much."
On top of Grimm's performance, the Rochester defense also began to give Triton fits, instituting a halfcourt trap, which led to16 Trojan turnovers.
"When they started trapping us, we had a little bit of trouble early," Groves said. "We made the adjustment at halftime, and I told them to be patient. Sometimes, we just got a little too quick and maybe threw the ball before we wanted."
Prior to going to the trap, Rochester found itself down 32-25 following a three-pointer by Triton senior Cody Carpenter with 2:49 remaining in the first half. With the trap implemented, Rochester outscored Triton 12-4 the rest of the half, resulting in a 37-36 halftime lead.
"I told the guys at halftime, that we'd probably have to trap the rest of the game," Malchow said. "In the first quarter, we wanted to see what we could do - how our halfcourt man-to-man would do against them. They obviously felt they had an advantage with (senior Colton) Keel, and went to him - quite successfully. As we moved into the second quarter, and began mixing defenses, we could see them struggle with the pressure."
Prior to the shift in the defensive scheme, Keel had an eight-point, five-rebound first half. In the second half, the 6-foot-4, Bethel College-bound Keel had four points and four rebounds, leaving him with a 12-point, nine rebound game.
"It's hard to get the ball to him in the post, when they're trapping you at halfcourt," Groves said.
With Keel struggling to get touches, Triton sophomore Griffyn Carpenter led the Trojans with 21 points, while also nabbing nine rebounds. Meister finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
