BOURBON — Triton senior Tanner Shepherd was awarded the game ball from Thursday night’s contest, though he would have preferred a better outcome to the game itself. Surpassing the 1,000-point milestone, Shepherd netted 25 points for the Triton Trojans (8-6), but the visiting Mishawaka Marian Knights (6-6) got a 58-44 victory. Shepherd’s high school career began with 176 points as a freshman at Tippecanoe Valley. He then moved to Triton were he scored 273 as a sophomore and 288 last year, playing alongside Triton’s all-time leading scorer Clay Yeo during those two seasons. “When you have a player like Clay, who’s averaging 20 points a game for two years ahead of you, and you’re still able to get 1,000 points – that’s pretty impressive,” Triton coach Jason Groves said. Shepherd has 274 points this season, averaging 19.6 per game, but it’s not just scoring he’s doing, averaging 5.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals. “He’s just doing a lot more and he’s more versatile,” Groves said of the 6-foot-1 guard. “Before, I think he was a little one-dimensional, but he’s widened his game quite a bit.” Against an athletic Marian team, Shepherd’s versatility just wasn’t enough. Shepherd and junior Skyler Reichert got their team off to an 11-4 lead, but Marian chipped away until a buzzer-beating three-pointer by junior Ryan Shafer gave the Knights a 25-22 halftime lead. “I felt like we let Shepherd and Reichert loose and they hit some big shots,” Marian coach Robb Berger said. The second half began with Reichert hitting his third triple of the game, followed by a bucket by Shepherd. Down 27-25 in the first 37 seconds of the half, Berger called a timeout to calm his team down. And it worked. Following the Marian timeout, Triton was outscored 13-0 over the next two-and-half minutes, and went from holding a 27-25 lead to trailing 38-27 with 4:41 left in the third. “We were able to score inside on the first couple of possessions,” Groves said. “Other than that, we were non-existent inside. When you can’t score inside, you’re not going to win many games. Triton broke the Marian run with a putback bucket by Shepherd, which was also his 1,000th point at the 4:20 mark of the quarter. The fans went wild for the milestone bucket, but that was about the end of the enthusiasm as Marian juniors Devin Cannady and Nick Harris never let their lead get below double digits. Cannady, who’s been offered by such schools as IUPUI, Toledo and Indiana State, finished the game with 15 points, five assists, five rebounds and three steals. Using great ball handling, the 6-foot Cannady routinely got inside the Triton zone and found teammates for easy buckets, including four dump passes to Harris, which resulted in dunks. “He’s really good,” Berger said of Cannady. “People get up to try to jam him, but he’s quick enough to blow by them, then he has good vision to make a pass. If you stay off him, he can really stroke it. He’s real solid.” Harris, a 6-foot-5 forward, finished the game with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while also recording seven rebounds and two blocks and created havoc with his long wingspan at the top of the Knights’ trapping defense. “I would say they’re the longest, most athletic team we’ve played,” Groves said. Battling their length, Triton converted 4 of 15 three-point attempts and shot 13 of 36 overall (36 percent). Along with Shepherd’s 25-point game, Reichert had nine for Triton, while junior Joey Corder had four points, seven rebounds, four blocks and two assists. And even though the team did lose, fans were able to celebrate the individual milestone made by Shepherd. “That’s a special achievement,” Groves said of Shepherd eclipsing 1,000 points. “Not too many high school basketball players are able to do that. It just shows what type of player Tanner is.” The Trojans are in Northern State Conference play Saturday at home against LaVille.
MISHAWAKA MARIAN 58, TRITON 44 M 11 14 21 12 – 58 T 15 7 11 11 – 44 Marian – Devin Cannady 6-13 1-2 15, Jake Whitfield 3-5 3-3 10, Quron Marks 0-2 0-0 0, Will Whitten 2-4 1-1 5, Nick Harris 7-10 2-3 16, Julian Hubbard 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Schafer 3-7 2-3 9, Michael Voor 0-0 0-0 0, Jai Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Anthony Blum 1-2 1-3 3, Connor Dalton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-43 10-15 58. Triton – Joey Corder 1-3 2-2 4, Jordan Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Tanner Shepherd 7-17 10-12 25, Dillon Meadway 0-0 2-4 2, Skyler Reichert 3-9 0-0 9, Darren Harrell 0-3 0-0 0, Masen Yeo 2-3 0-0 4, Austin Sellers 0-1 0-0 0, Seth Flenar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-36 14-18 44. Three-pointers – Marian 4 (Cannady 2, Whitfield, Schafer), Triton 4 (Reichert 3, Shepherd); Team Fouls (fouled out) – Marian 16 (Blum), Triton 13; Turnovers – Marian 15, Triton 15; Rebounds – Marian 29 (Schafer 7, Harris 7), Triton 22 (Corder 7); Assists – Maria 11 (Cannady 5), Triton 7 (Corder 2, Shepherd 2); Steals – Marian 8 (Schafer 4), Triton 5; Blocks – Marian 6 (Whitten 2, Harris 2), Triton 4 (Corder 4). Records: Marian 6-6, Triton 8-6. JV – Marian 47, Triton 22 Triton – Landon Kaufman 12, Grant Johnson 6, Jarrett Kreft 2, Zac Pitney 2.
