BOURBON – In Gary 21st Century Charter Academy, the 16th-ranked Triton Trojans will face a team that can put points on the board in a hurry. The two teams will face off in the Triton 1A Regional semifinal Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Trojan Trench. Twice the seventh-ranked Cougars have scored more than 100 points. They average better than 78 points a game and take an 18-6 record into the regional. That makes 21st Century the second-highest scoring team in the state, trailing only Class 4A’s Evansville Reitz, and more than five points better than the next 1A school, Liberty Christian in Anderson. The Cougars are paced by senior guard and team captain Eugene German. He scored 51 points in a loss to La Lumiere and a season-high 52 in the Cougars’ 106-84 win over Indianapolis Metropolitan. The average works out to 33.3 points a contest. German is hardly The Lone Ranger. Classmate Tyree Booker, a 6-foot-5 forward, is close to averaging a double-double, with 10.8 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Five times Booker scored 19 or more points in a game, including a 22-point night against Westville in the Morgan Township Sectional semifinal. And then there’s 6-2 sophomore DeAndre Gholston. He’s also flirting with a double-double average, getting 14.4 points and 9.9 boards a night. He scored at least 14 points in eight of 10 games before being held to one free throw in the sectional final. Guards Armad Cathey and Core’von Lott round out the starting five, and the two guards put 18 points on the board between them every game, and are good for around five steals per contest on the defensive end. So, the Trojans will have their hands full. But Triton has played solid defense most of the year, holding teams to 40 points a game and hasn’t given up more than 50 since a Dec. 22 loss to No. 5 (Class 4A) Warsaw; a team that has lost just once all year heading into this weekend. “We will definitely make German the focus of our defense; however, the other players are more than capable, so we will really need to protect the basket and limit them to one shot,” Triton head coach Jason Groves said. “Hopefully, we can keep them off balance by mixing it up defensively.” On the offensive end Triton has Jordan Anderson and Zac Pitney providing outside firepower, with Masen Yeo, Grant Johnson and Jarrett Kreft, among others, taking care of business in the paint. Yeo is also a three-point threat, second only to Anderson in shots made from beyond the arc. Anderson averages around 15 points a game, Yeo is in the 12-point range, and Johnson close to 10. Pitney is well capable of a double-digit effort, having earned more playing time as the season unfolded. With a win, the Trojans would move on to face the winner of the semifinal matchup between No. 14 Fort Wayne Blackhawk (16-11) and No. 6 South Newton (23-2). Blackhawk will come in to the regional battle-tested, having played only two 1A schools before winning the sectional it hosted last week. The Braves score 67.2 points and give up 58.4 points a game, compared to Triton’s 58 points scored and 40 points allowed a game. South Newton’s team averages, both offensive and defensively, are very similar to the Trojans. The Rebels will bring with them offensive balance, with four players scoring at least nine points a game. With four quality 1A teams playing Saturday in Bourbon, all the squads have work to do to emerge as champions. “To get two wins, we will need to play really, really well,” Groves said. “We’ll need to shoot the ball well, get scoring out of many different guys, value every single possession, and play some stingy defense.”
