Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
CULVER - In the consolation game of the Culver Holiday Tournament, the Triton Trojans shook off a 42-point performance the night before as they rolled past Culver 76-51 Friday night. Triton came out of the blocks early and jumped to a 20-8 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
The Trojans were led early by junior guard Matt Savill who had seven points and two rebounds in the first half. Savill finished with a team-high 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field. Many of Savill's shots were created off of Culver turnovers. The Trojans forced 17 turnovers, eight of which were steals.
Austin Unterbrink and Adam Heckaman each had three steals for Triton.
"I don't know if we want to trap all the time but three or four times we created easy layups off of turnovers," Triton coach Kevin O'Rourke said.
Caston won its seventh holiday tourney title in eight years with a 57-47 win over Argos in the championship game.
Besides Savill, O'Rourke got big contributions from Nick Treber who had 9 points and Unterbrink, who had 11 points and six assists.
At the end of the first half Triton was up 32-20. Triton came out in the second half and took over the game. In the third quarter, the Trojans outscored the Cavaliers by seven and forced Culver to take bad shots. The Cavaliers shot 12 of 26 in the second half, while the Trojans shot 17 of 29 from the field.
Along with shooting poorly from the field, the Cavaliers also committed 18 team fouls in the game sending Triton to the line often, where it hit 12 of 16. Triton was able to use a nine-man rotation to keep most of their players out of foul trouble. Culver on the other hand, had three of its starting five in foul trouble most of the game. Culver guards Matt Stevens and Jayson Migonis each had 12 points. They also each had four fouls, however.
Stevens, who had seven first-half points, collected his third foul early in the third quarter and sat out most of the second half. Matt Flaherty also had four fouls and led the Cavaliers on the boards with six.
Despite the convincing win, O'Rourke is looking forward to the three-week span between now and early January when the Trojans have no games.
"I'm excited about Christmas break where we can make some giant steps. I think we can look at some aspects and really improve. ... I'm seeing progress with this team, but it's not always seen on the scoreboard."
In the fourth quarter, Triton lit up the scoreboard by posting 26 points, most of which was garbage time but which allowed for the Trojans to improve on offensive stats which had been lacking previous games.
Triton, now 2-4, will start the new year Jan. 9 at Glenn.
