FAIRLAND – The final and most emphatic scoring run went to Triton Central – and so did the win.

Triton Central retained possession of the Victory Bell Thursday over a pesky Waldron squad, 63-53.

The Tigers trailed 47-40 going into the final quarter on their home floor then outscored the Mohawks 23-6 over the last eight minutes to improve to 2-1 this season.

“We spent a lot of time on being aware of the clock, not rushing and I thought Max (Crouse) did a great job of keeping the ball in his hands,” said Triton Central head coach Mark James on his team’s improvement since its last game. “He did some good IQ things for us.”

Triton Central played without leading scorer Eli Sego (19.5 ppg), who was still suffering the effects of severe leg cramps during Saturday’s loss to Shelbyville. That put the ball in Crouse’s hands more and he delivered a 17-point, five-assist, four-rebound, two-steal performance. The sophomore hit four free throws in the final 32 seconds to seal the victory.

Silas Blair hit three second-quarter three-pointers to get Triton Central a 33-28 halftime lead. He then scored 12 points in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 28 points to go with four rebounds and two blocked shots.

“We challenged him after the Shelbyville game because we thought that sophomore, No. 1 (Mar Nicholson), took him to the basket,” said James. “We talked to him about guarding his man, being tall and helping people out. I thought he played really hard defensively tonight. It’s about as hard as I’ve seen him play physically.”

Without Sego, James needed someone to step up and fill that void and junior Sam Collier answered the challenge with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Waldron (0-2) was quick and the more aggressive team early on. The Mohawks were jumping passing lanes and racing to the basket at the other end. The result was a quick 8-2 lead.

“We try to score prior to attacking a set defense because you see a variety of (defensive) styles,” said first-year Waldron coach David Corder. “We really try to get some easy cheap baskets. (Triton Central) did a good job taking it away from us as the game went on and I thought their ability to drop their shoulders and get to the rim hurt us a little bit.”

Waldron’s early lead disappeared in what was a game of scoring runs but the Mohawks recovered to take an 18-14 lead into the first break.

Blair’s trio of 3s came in a span of just over two minutes in the second quarter that put the Tigers up at halftime.

The third quarter belonged to Waldron, outscoring the hosts 19-7. Six different Mohawks scored in part to Lucas Shaw dishing out six assists.

Triton Central had just two field goals in the quarter and four turnovers which helped the Mohawks build a 47-40 lead going into the final quarter.

Following a three-point play from freshman Henry Kemper, who played major minutes in the fourth quarter for Triton Central, Shaw stuck a 3-pointer from the top of the key to push the lead back to seven. It would be the only field goal Waldron scored in the quarter.

“It’s a little different here. I coached in Georgia a long time and you get about five weeks to practice before your first game,” explained Corder. “We have to come up with a come-from-behind offense, a delay game and a quick-strike offense and, frankly, we haven’t had time to work on that yet.”

Waldron hit just 1 of 11 shots in the fourth quarter.

Shaw finished with a team-high 16 points and had six assists and four rebounds. Jack Fischer had a career-high 10 points and Keith Settles finished with seven points and five rebounds.

Triton Central won the junior varsity game, 54-28.

Cael Butler led the Tigers with 14 points. Rex Lory had 12.

Ethan Moody and Jack Adkins each scored five points for Waldron.

The Mohawks open their Mid-Hoosier Conference schedule Saturday at home against Edinburgh (1-1).

Triton Central finishes its four-game run against Shelby County opponents Saturday when it hosts Southwestern (0-1).

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