Triton’s Masen Yeo could be in line to take a huge step forward for the Trojans in his senior season. (File photo by Mike Deak)

BOURBON – Only four teams get to feel that ecstasy of one last win to end the basketball season. For the other 390 teams, the stagger of a postseason loss is the same story. For Triton, it got the dissatisfaction of watching a team celebrate a championship on the Trojan Trench floor while it stood in agony. Guess who is coming back to Triton Nov. 25?

Oregon-Davis knocked Triton out of the sectional with a championship performance last season at the Trench, and the Bobcats will be back to open the season. Triton head coach Jason Groves, in his 11th season, has another strong team returning, and knows his boys are chomping at the bit to get another chance to face one of its rivals.

“We are just excited to start another season with a new group of kids,” Groves said. “But it is nice to be able to start over new against the team who knocked you out of the playoffs the previous season.”

Triton will have a lot of redemption opportunities at home early, with six of its first seven games at the Trench. Three of those games are against teams that beat Triton a season ago in Oregon-Davis, Plymouth and NorthWood. Triton also has a December date at home against regional nemesis Pioneer, now a Hoosier North Athletic Conference opponent, and road dates at powerful Winamac and at Warsaw right before Christmas.

Groves is excited to have back a host of talent from a club that went 17-8 a season ago. Guards Jordan Anderson and Jarrett Kreft and forwards Masen Yeo and Dalton Bailey buoy the senior class. A trio of juniors in guards Zac Pitney and Jarrett Martin along with center Grant Johnson give Triton a formidable base lineup.

Anderson returns as the leading scorer after sending in almost 10 points per game and was the primary ball handler at the point. Yeo came along as the season progressed to become the team’s second-leading scorer to return at almost nine points per game. Yeo also developed into a solid defender both on the wing and in the post, and joins Johnson, who stands at 6’6″, as a quality duo inside the arc.

Groves anticipates Kreft, Bailey, Pitney and Martin to all take on bigger roles after mostly JV seasons in 2014-15.

“We are really excited about Jarrett Kreft and Dalton Bailey, both great kids and hard workers,” Groves said. “They both had really good summers and found their confidence as seniors. We are also looking for some contribution from Jarrett Martin and Zac Pitney. After that, we will have to see who steps up during practice.”

Triton shared the final Northern State Conference championship with John Glenn, both teams finishing 6-1 in the conference. The Hoosier North Athletic Conference in its maiden voyage has old NSC foes LaVille, Knox and Culver plus Pioneer, West Central, Winamac, North Judson and Caston to form the new basketball grid.

“Obviously, we know a lot about LaVille, Knox and Culver, and we know a little about Pioneer and Caston,” noted Groves of the new conference and season schedule alignment. “But we will need to get out and see some of those other schools and hopefully learn some more about them.”