GOSHEN – After falling behind Bethany Christian by 11 points in the first quarter, Triton High School’s varsity boys basketball team regrouped to tie the game by halftime, then slowly pull away from the Bruins in a 57-38 win Tuesday night. For the first five minutes of the game, the Bruins looked like one of the better teams in the state. On offense they hit six of their first nine shots, including four treys. Defensively, they forced Triton into four turnovers, and held the Trojans to three stick-back layups and a short jump shot in the lane. After Tristan Clark’s buzzer-beating, multiple bounce-off-the-backboard and rim three pointer, Bethany led 19-8 and looked a bit like a team of destiny. “They came out and played really well. They got after ‘em,” said Trojan head coach Jason Groves. “All season long, they were the team that came out and played the hardest, with emotion and I don’t think our guys were quite ready for that. They outmatched us emotionally, played with more effort and confidence than we did, and give them a lot of credit. We had to fight back and battle back. “The good thing about it is our kids did that.” Senior Skyler Reichert hit back-to-back three-pointers to spark a 10-0 Triton run to open the second quarter. At the same time, the Trojans began crashing the boards, eventually outrebounding Bethany 28-12 in the game. Groves said the changes the Trojans made at the end of the first quarter weren’t so much physical as mental. “We talked about little things; things we shouldn’t have to talk about now. Communication; talking to each other defensively, getting your hand up on a close-out, fundamental things the guys should be doing. “It wasn’t a whole lot of X’s and O’s kind of adjustments; it was more a matter of fixing their brains, nut the kids responded and got in a groove and did what they needed to do to come back and win.” After halftime, Triton continued to pound the backboards, and worked their way through the Bethany defense for good shots. One third quarter possession saw the Bruins defend Triton for 57 seconds, but the trip ended with a Joey Corder outworked three Bethany defenders for a rebound and score. Toward the tail end of the game, Bethany’s players began to foul, but after Triton hit 8 of 9 free throws, the Bruins backed off, and Triton eased to the win. After the first quarter, Triton held Bethany to 8 of 26 from the field, including 2 of 15 from behind the arc. Triton hit 57 percent of its shots in the game. Triton will take a 3-3 record into its Northern State Conference opener when it hosts New Prairie at 8 p.m. Friday, It’ll be the last game of the calendar year for the Trojans.
TRITON 57, BETHANY CHRISTIAN 38 T 8 15 15 19 – 57 BC 19 4 7 8 – 38 Triton – Joey Corder 4-8 0-0 8, Landon Kaufman 0-0 0-0 0, Jarrett Kreft 0-0 0-0 0, Masen Yeo 2-3 0-0 4, Jordan Anderson 2-4 4-6 10, Austin Sellers 4-7 1-1 9, Dalton Bailey 0-0 0-0 0, Nathan Flenar 0-1 0-0 0, Skyler Reichert 5-9 4-4 18, Grant Johnson 4-4 0-0 8, Spencer Glingle 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-37 9-11 57, Bethany – Sol Brenneman 3-11 1-7 7, Tristan Clark 5-7 0-0 12, Clifton Miller 1-3, Noah Hochstetler 0-0 0-0 0, Nahshon Lora 0-0 0-0 0, Joel Miller 2-4 0-0 5, Ethan Miller 2-8 0-0 6, Cristian Romero 2-5 1-2 5. Totals 15-38 1-2 38. Three-pointers – Triton 6 (Reichert 4, Anderson 2), Bethany 7 (Clark 2, E. Miller 2, Brenneman, C. Miller); Rebounds – Triton 28 (Johnson 7), Bethany 12 (Romero 6); Turnovers – Triton 16, Bethany 11; Steals – Triton 8, Bethany 10; Fouls – Triton 9, Bethany 11; Fouled out – none; Records – Triton 3-3, Bethany 2-5 JV – Triton 46, Bethany Christian 35 Triton – Zac Pitney 13, Jarrett Martin 9, Dylan Hensley 8, Caden Marr 4, Dalton Bailey 4, Jarrett Kreft 3, Adam Stevens 3, Brent Motz 2
