Triton Comeback Falls Short
CULVER — The ball didn’t bounce Triton’s way in a season-ending loss to Argos at Tuesday’s Culver Sectional openers — actually, it didn’t really bounce either teams’ way, although the Dragons did make the most of their opportunities at the foul line.
Triton head coach Adam Heckaman couldn’t fault his Lady Trojans’ efforts in a comeback that pushed Argos down to the wire. In the end, it wasn’t enough, however, as Triton closed with a 22-18 loss at John R. Nelson Gymnasium.
“Just some things happened this week with sickness and injuries that didn’t help out tonight, but in the course of the game they did everything they could. We just didn’t make enough shots down the stretch, had a couple bad turnovers,” explained Heckaman.
“The ball just didn’t bounce our way tonight, and I told the girls sometimes that happens. But they have nothing to hang their heads about. They did what they could.”
The Trojans really struggled to score the ball at the outset, going 0-for-13 over a scoreless first quarter. Defense kept them in it, though, and they trailed just 5-0 at the first quarter break and only 10-4 at halftime. The two teams’ dueling 2-3 zones resulted in a combined 5-for-36 first half by the competitors.
Argos opened the second half with a post bucket by Elizabeth Edmonds to stretch its advantage out to its largest margin of the night at eight points, but Triton also started to get the ball inside and began whittling away. The Trojans tied it up twice in the fourth period — the first time on an Abbey Viers free throw at the 3:58 stop of the clock and the second on a Viers bank shot inside off a Taren Yates helper with 2:16 to go — but never quite got out front. Trailing by two following a pair of Edmonds free throws with just 1:18 remaining, an untimely turnover gave the Dragons the ball right back, and this time Emma Dunlap knocked down both of her charity tosses in the bonus with 14.5 ticks left to play. Emma Hepler’s three-point attempt from the corner sailed a little long, caroming off the far side of the rim and out of bounds to seal the loss with 1.8 seconds left.
All told, Argos converted 8-of-10 free throw opportunities, while the Trojans went just 3-of-8 from the stripe. The Dragons scored at a 6-of-30 (20 percent) clip from the field, while Triton was slightly worse with a 7-of-39 (17.9 percent) conversion rate, but it was those points at the foul line — including 5-of-6 in the final period alone — that wound up making the difference.
“It’s a difference-maker. They made some free throws there. I don’t know what we were from the line, but I don’t think we made two in a row at any stretch when we had opportunities to. And we were in the bonus most of the fourth quarter,” recalled Heckaman. “The bottom line is the ball didn’t bounce our way on some shots in the first half that I thought maybe could have got us going, but defensively — like we’ve done most of the year — we gave ourselves a chance.”
The Trojans were paced by Viers, who scored nine of her game-high 11 points in the second half and finished with a near double-double of nine rebounds. She also blocked four shots, all in the first period.
“We’ve worked on her and worked on her all year to be more aggressive, and she was tonight. It was good to see,” said Heckaman of his junior forward. “She’s rebounded the ball well all year. She’s come a long way defensively, and offensively she’s finally starting to be more aggressive. I thought there were a few times honestly that she maybe could’ve gotten to the line a couple more times, but that comes and goes.”
Yates finished with four assists, two steals and eight rebounds, meanwhile, but she scuffled to a 1-for-10 shooting clip from the floor, including misses on a pair of fast breaks at the game.
“I thought Taren really stepped up late in the game penetrating and getting Abbey the ball in position to score and attacking the basket a little bit more,” Heckaman said. “But all the girls stepped up big time tonight. We had a starting lineup out there tonight that we haven’t had all season, and they all stepped up and did what they could.”
Edmonds put up nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds for Argos, while Macy Morris scored eight points in the win, which pushed the Dragons out to 13-9. They advance to face LaCrosse in Friday’s late semifinal. Host Culver collected a convincing, 43-22 win over West Central in Tuesday’s opener and will play Oregon-Davis in Friday’s early semifinal, slated for 6 p.m.
Triton closes the season at 10-14. Tuesday’s loss was the team’s third straight but didn’t detract from a strong finish for the Trojans, who lost star senior guard Whytnie Miller to her third season-ending injury in as many years on Jan. 14 but still managed to win three straight and reach the Bi-County Tournament finals. And even Tuesday’s four-point margin could be viewed as a measuring stick for how far the team came considering the Trojans lost by 20 points to Argos in their first meeting back in November. Triton will have to say goodbye to Miller as well as fellow seniors Jessica Soriano and Alyxa Viers.
“We’re disappointed with the outcome tonight, but I thought the season as a whole these girls learned a lot and they came a long way. They worked hard,” Heckaman said. “Our seniors Whytnie and Jessica and Alyxa, they were great leaders for us. They were supportive, and they worked hard, which set the tone. I really think that the girls responded after Whytnie went down. Our season could’ve really gone south after that. We got to the Bi-County championship game. We won three or four games after that happened, and that’s a testament to her and our other seniors’ leadership to make sure the ship stayed afloat. The girls battled and they worked hard and they improved, and that’s all we can ask out of them.”