BREMEN – Triton and Bremen went on scoring runs to keep the game close, with the Trojans getting the last one to take a 56-47 road win over the Lions Tuesday night in high school boys basketball action. The Lions got the first point of the game before Triton went on an 11-0 run. Bryce Cassel dropped the first of his four three-pointers with 46 seconds to go in the opening quarter for Bremen’s first points from the field, keying a 7-0 run into the second period to draw within three. Triton struggled to get much going on offense in the first half, hitting eight shots on 27 tries, less than 30 percent. The Trojans did hit the boards hard, getting eight offensive rebounds, which led to a lot of second- and third-shot buckets. Trojan head coach Jason Groves said he asked his team to play aggressively, but maybe he wasn’t quite clear with his players. “I told the kids ‘you guys need to relax. I wanted to come out and be aggressive, but you guys gotta finish, be strong and work the ball a little bit,’” he said. “‘If they take away (positioning) after two, three, four passes, you gotta be patient and get the best shot possible,’ We weren’t doing that early. “But sometimes the kids get being aggressive confused with chucking up a three, and that’s not what I’m talking about with aggressiveness. We were trying to get to the basket and we weren’t finishing early, but I told them ‘you guys need to get in there, finish, shot-fake, jump-stop.’ And I thought they did a better job of being under control after that.” In the second half, Triton built enough of a lead to withstand a 9-2 Lion run that brought Bremen to within two points early in the third period. The patient approach paid off for Triton with fewer shots from the field (15), but more baskets (10) after halftime. Coupled with the home team continuing to lose the rebounding battle, Bremen sent Triton to the free throw line 20 times after the intermission. The Trojans hit 14 of those charities, including 6 of 10 in the final 2-1/2 minutes to salt the game away. Triton outrebounded the Lions 32-26. “We’ve really been focused on (rebounding). When you’re inconsistent offensively, and you have trouble scoring at times, that’s a good way to get some easy buckets,” Groves said. “In practice we work on everybody crashing the boards, not just Grant Johnson or Zac Pitney. It’s gotta be Masen (Yeo), it’s gotta be Jordan Anderson. Those guys have to get in there and find a way to get more touches. “When the other team is taking away things, they have to find ways to score other than just the regular offense. It’s been a focus of ours, and the kids did a pretty decent job against a physical, athletic Bremen team. So I was definitely pleased.” Yeo led the Trojans with 16 points, with Anderson adding 12 and Johnson 10. Triton improved to 15-7 with the win, and will not play another game away from the Trojan Trench unless they advance to the semistate round of postseason play. The Trojans close out the regular season by hosting Hoosier North Athletic Conference rival Knox at 8 p.m. Friday.
