Triton’s Beau Hepler drives on Oregon-Davis’ Jeffrey Avery during a Culver Sectional game last season. Hepler returns as a third-year starter to lead the 2018-19 Trojans. (File photo by James Costello)

BOURBON — Last year’s Trojans really struggled to score the basketball at times, and head coach Jason Groves often lamented when he remembered back to an offseason in which he saw few shooters working on their shots.

Triton’s boys couldn’t crack the 40-point mark in a full nine of their games, and probably not surprisingly, only one of those contests resulted in a Trojans win —  a 38-34 decision versus Culver Community in a Bi-County Tournament consolation game in January — as the program scuffled to a 7-15 record, marking the first time a Groves squad fell short of a winning season since his first year at the helm back in 2004-05. It was a frustrating experience, but this year’s squad seems to have learned from past mistakes, and Groves sees a number of shooters on the 2018-19 edition of the Trojans.

“If you want to be successful you’ve got to put in time and effort, and I thought this offseason they definitely took a step up from last offseason, that’s for sure. That’s kind of nice to see the kids learn from their mistakes and get in there and get shots,” explained Groves. “We have some young kids that I think are really pushing the older kids because they’re just gym rats — they’re in the gym all the time and shooting. So I think some of the older guys it kind of rubbed off on them, like ‘You know what? If I want to play I’m going to have to get in the gym and shoot because these younger guys are kind of showing us up in that area.’ It’s nice to see when you get some kids doing that and then the other kids see that, and it just becomes normal.”

Foremost among those shooters is senior guard Beau Hepler, a third-year starter who was the team’s second-leading scorer with 174 points last year while manning the point. Hepler may still be called upon to direct the Triton offense at times this season, but between returning junior Quentin Amdsden and freshman Tyson Yates, Hepler should be able to move into an off guard position to find openings. And that should help the Trojan offense as a whole.

“I think one reason behind it is we have guys capable this year of earning points, so it kind of frees Beau up to just be able to look for his shot. He’s still capable if we need him for any reason at point, but I feel pretty comfortable with Quentin and Tyson kind of tag-teaming the point and freeing Beau up,” said Groves. “So far Quentin has been really solid both offensively and defensively, and I think we have a lot more guys who can shoot this year. That’s going to open Beau up more because teams can’t just focus on him. We have a few other guys that can knock down some shots as well.”

Among those others are the aforementioned duo, as well as returning junior Jared Bules — like Amsden an on-and-off starter last season — as well as a trio of guards bumping up from mostly JV play in seniors Kaden Atkins and Chase Butler and sophomore Keegan Westafer. Then there’s the addition of exciting newcomer Ashton Oviedo, who will likely get a starting spot in the lineup as a freshman.

“He’s just a really smart basketball player,” said Groves of Oviedo. “He’s making good decisions. He’s a good shooter, a good passer, knows where to be on defense. Just an all around heady player.”

This year’s squad should have some front court presence to match, too.

Northwestern senior transfer Lucas Richman and returning junior Tyler Heckaman both lend their 6’4 frames to the cause, while athletic 6-1 senior Tye Orsund — back after taking last season off — returns and lends his athleticism to a variety of roles for Triton. Similarly, Trenton Kreft, while not terribly tall at a 6-foot listing, has shown an ability to play both inside and out, and Groves is hopeful this year’s team can find a bit more balance between the perimeter and the interior.

“That’s one area where I think we really struggled last year was just going inside consistently, so I’m hoping with Luke and Tyler and a little bit with Tye that we can score inside a little bit more consistently this year, and that’ll help our guards as well. That’s going to help Beau get open on the perimeter and our other guards who can knock down shots,” Groves said. “Especially Tyler, Tyler Heckaman has had a really good preseason. It just seems like he’s gotten more athletic, more confident in his ability. He’s really learning how to play inside. He’s one that likes the perimeter and he can play on the perimeter — he has a nice shot — but in order to get there I think he needs to learn how to play inside first. He’s been doing that, and he’s been looking pretty good.”

Still, it’s not an overwhelmingly big group, and guard play will likely be this group’s best asset. Along with shooting, Groves believes a more experienced lineup will clean up some of the ball security issues that plagued the Trojans last season. And with some team speed, too, he’s hoping quickness on the defensive end will put Triton on the other side of some of those turnovers.

“I think our quickness really showed in the scrimmage. We have a lot of guys that are quick and athletic, and we can kind of transition from playing a lot of zone last year to playing man-to-man this year,” said Groves. “I really felt our man-to-man looked decent in the scrimmage. We still obviously had a lot of room for improvement, but I thought our quickness was something that we can use this year to get after people a little bit. Our kids were flying around making plays, and that can turn into some instant offense as well. I felt like we didn’t have that last year, so I’m kind of counting on the defense this year to kind of provide some offense as well.”

Triton opens the season Wednesday on the road at sectional rival Oregon-Davis, which has gotten the better of the Trojans in each of their past four meetings. They follow up with games at outsized Plymouth and NorthWood before the team’s home-opener with South Bend Career Academy Dec. 4 and will open up Hoosier North Athletic Conference play at Pioneer on Dec. 7.

“This group has been a great group,” said Groves. “One thing we’ve really been talking a lot about is kind of the focus of our program is be positive in everything we say and do, strive for excellence in everything we do, be men of integrity and put others first. I think we do those things on and off the court, the wins are going to come. This is a good group. They’re good kids. It’s been a pleasure so far to coach this group.”