BOURBON – Clay Yeo proved that perseverance pays off. Though he struggled shooting the ball, hitting just 4 of 13 shots in the first half and 8 of 21 in the game, the 6-foot-6 Triton High School junior scored 23 points and pulled down 15 rebounds Tuesday night. The Valparaiso Unversity-bound Yeo's performance led the Class 1A No. 7 Trojans to a 46-33 win over the visiting Culver Cavaliers in the first round of the 47th annual TCU Bi-County Tournament. "I told him after the game, 'you're not going to get open shots every night,'" said Triton coach Jason Groves. "Culver knows us well, and they defended us well. They made us work." The Trojans, who defeated the Cavaliers 57-56 Saturday night in regular season action as Yeo scored 30 points, improved to 9-3 on the season and will play Glenn at 8 p.m. Friday at LaVille High School in the tournament's semifinal round. Glenn beat LaVille 57-47 in first-round action Tuesday in Lakeville. Culver, which scored just two points in the first quarter, fell to 7-5 on the season and will play host LaVille Friday at 8 p.m. in the consolation round in the auxillary gym. Triton is looking for its third-straight Bi-County Tournament championship and fourth overall. "That's one of our goals," said Groves. "Every year we want to win conference, win the Bi-County and win the sectional and beyond. There's a lot of history in this tournament. It's a great tournament." Sophomore Tanner Shepherd added seven points in the win, while junior Bryson Mosier scored five points and senior Zak Shively and junior Seth Glingle chipped in with four points each. Triton led 8-2 after the first quarter, 16-11 at halftime and 29-21 going into the fourth quarter. Culver cut the deficit to five, 31-26, but the Trojans used a 12-3 run to stretch things out again. "It was a low-scoring game," said Groves. "We had to grind it out." Not only was it lower scoring than Saturday's matchup in Culver, Triton was just 15 of 43 (35 percent) from the field overall and 1 of 12 from the arc in Tuesday's game. The Cavaliers were 12 of 42 (29 percent) overall and 4 of 19 from three-point range. Triton was 15 of 20 at the free throw line, while Culver was 5 of 7. Senior Allen Biggers led Culver with 10 points before fouling out, while sophomores Trent Elliott and Jacoda Anderson scored seven and six points, respectively.
GIRLS In the girls matchup, Culver avenged Friday's nine-point loss to Class 1A No. 6 Triton by beating the host Lady Trojans 45-40. The Lady Cavaliers led 9-6 after one quarter of play, 28-18 at halftime and 34-25 heading into the fourth quarter. Triton's only lead of the game was 2-0, though the Lady Trojans did rattle off a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter to cut Culver's advantage to one, 36-35. With the win, the Lady Cavaliers improved to 7-8 on the season and advanced to Thursday's semifinal round at LaVille High School, where they will play the host Lady Lancers at 8 p.m. Triton fell to 10-5 and will play Glenn Thursday in the consoloation round. The game will play at 8 p.m. in the auxillary gym at LaVille. Sophomore Kayla Shaffer led Culver with 14 points, all of which came in the first half. Freshmen Mickella Hardy and Tatum Schultz scored 10 and eight points, respectively. For Triton, sophomore Taylor Hatfield led the way with 14 points, while freshmen Kylie Mason chipped in with 10 points and junior Shana Anderson added seven points and eight rebounds.
