BOURBON – Triton had LaVille in an offensive funk in the second quarter. the visiting Lancers returned the favor in the third period, but didn’t capitalize as much on their opportunity as Triton did. The end result was Triton pulling out a 59-47 Hoosier North Athletic Conference high school boys basketball win in the Trojan Trench Friday night. The final score hides how close the game turned out to be. Jordan Anderson was next to impossible to stop in the first half, knocking down four threes, scoring 16 points in 16 minutes. His back-to-back treys with 2:18 left in the period gave Triton a 34-15 advantage. As the half wound down, the home team appeared to have things well under control. In the last 30 seconds of the half, however, LaVille’s Luke Beehler converted a turnover into an easy layup, then after another Trojan turnover Lancer senior Isaac Eash cashed in a three-pointer of his own, his second of the game, and cut the lead to 14 at the half. Those five points mattered quite a bit. In the third quarter, the Trojans became as cold and dry as the snow flying outside that caused the post-game dance to be postponed. They hit only one field goal in the period as the Lancers crept to within six after Adam Steinke’s three as time expired in the period. “We came out hot, played aggressive, and we weren’t afraid, and when we play with intensity like that, we’re a pretty good basketball team,” said Triton head coach Jason Groves. “But then the second half starts, and we score two points. We’ve actually done that before; when we played New Prairie in the Bi-County (tournament) we didn’t score in the third quarter. But we’ve been up and down all season, and that’s been our struggle all season. “The kids are good players when they’re confident, and that showed in the first half.” And in the second half? “I think we just relaxed a little bit. For some reason we were in a five defense but everyone (for LaVille) was up pressing in a man-to-man, full court, and they were able to isolate us there at the end and get a shot. I’m not sure what we were doing there, but those breakdowns you can’t have,” Groves said. “That’s what I’m talking about with our consistency. I think part of it is confidence; I don’t think our confidence was there during that stretch, and we were ‘attacking.’ We didn’t feel comfortable doing that. “It’s tough to coach in those situations. do you come out super aggressive and attack? Or do you try and take some time off the clock? It’s a fine line, but I told the kids ‘keep being aggressive, keep attacking, you just gotta be smart about it.’ I think we did get a little bit passive, though.” LaVille wasn’t going to give Triton any uncontested shots the rest of the way, and Triton only made two more shots in the final eight minutes. The Trojans rode a wave of free throws to the win, hitting 17 of 24 charities in the fourth period alone, and finished 20 of 29 in the game. “I told our kids I know we didn’t play a full four quarters like we wanted to, but it was definitely a good win,” Groves said. “(LaVille’s) a good basketball team with about the same record as we have, and so this was a great win for us. I said ‘three’s nothing to be ashamed of; it’s a 12-point win over LaVille.’ They’re extremely well coached, they play hard and they play with class. So it was a fun game to coach against them, but we knew they weren’t going away.” Triton will take a 13-6 overall record into a non-conference game at Rochester Tuesday night.
