MONROVIA — Once Triton Central regained the lead just past the mid-point of the fourth quarter Tuesday night at Monrovia, it never relinquished it again thanks to strong performances from Sam Collier and Taggy Goul.
Collier scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter, including hitting five free throws in the final 30 seconds while Goul protected the rim at the other end of the floor, blocking two shots and grabbing three rebounds, to seal a hard-fought 50-44 conference road victory.
Goul finished with six points, nine rebounds and four blocks to help keep the Tigers in contention for the Indiana Crossroads Conference title. Triton Central improved to 15-5 overall and 4-1 against ICC opponents.
Indianapolis Ritter (8-12, 6-1 ICC) has already secured no worse than a share of the conference championship.
Triton Central arrived at Branch McCracken Memorial Gymnasium Tuesday to face a Monrovia squad playing its best basketball and riding a 4-game win streak, victorious in seven of its last eight contests. And Senior Tucker Rahn has been deadly from beyond the arc, hitting 62-of-136 attempts (46%) this season.
The Tigers prefer a possession-to-possession style of game and that kept the Bulldogs (10-11, 2-4 ICC) from explosive runs in its final home game of the regular season.
“That was a big win for us,” said Triton Central head coach Mark James. “Partly because we had to have peripheral guys step up and play big minutes for us and they did. They made some really big plays for us at the end.
“I thought Taggy did a great job guarding (McCloud) at the end. And Collier came in and hit some big free throws for us and defended well.”
Triton Central jumped out to a 6-0 lead with terrific ball movement that resulted in three easy buckets at the rim.
Monrovia got on the scoreboard when Hayden McCloud scored in the low post and was fouled. The junior converted the three-point play and proved to be a problem for the Tigers the rest of the first half.
Triton Central scored the final five points of the opening quarter for an 11-6 advantage. McCloud outscored the Tigers 10-4 over a stretch of the second quarter but Silas Blair converted in the low post in the final minute of the half and hit 1-of-2 free throws with 30 seconds left to give the Tigers a 20-19 lead at the break.
McCloud, who finished with a game-high 17 points, scored the first two points of the third quarter and Triton Central never led. But Monrovia struggled beyond the arc and was never able to open more than a 5-point lead. Rahn ended the game with just eight points, half his season average, and was an uncharacteristic 2-of-10 from beyond the 3-point line.
“When you are not shooting the ball well, everybody wants to keep putting it up,” said James. “We don’t have a shot clock in high school and I don’t believe in that. It’s still a possession game when you are not shooting the ball well. That’s when you have to make your free throws and we hit our free throws tonight (10 of 13 in the fourth quarter) and we rebounded with a bigger team.”
Eli Sego scored six of his team-high 16 points in a 2-minute stretch of the fourth quarter that gave Triton Central the lead for good.
From there, Goul helped limit the Bulldogs to just five points over the final four minutes and Collier was steady at the free-throw line.
“That’s a good team and if we didn’t guard them well we were going to get beat because they were on a little bit of a roll,” said James. “They have a really nice team and we will take the ‘W’.”
Blair finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists and Max Crouse had seven points, four assists and two steals.
Jayden Jones came off the Monrovia bench and scored 10 points. Clay Tharp had nine points to complete the Bulldogs’ scoring.
Triton Central raced out to a quick lead in the junior varsity game and secured a 58-43 victory. Nine different Tigers scored, led by Brady Ciriello’s 14 points. Cael Butler had 12 and Conner McClure finished with 11.
Triton Central, who will host Class 2A, Sectional 14 this year, plays its final two games of the regular season at home. The Tigers host Beech Grove (4-16, 2-4 ICC) Friday and Speedway (8-10, 3-2 ICC) on Feb. 23.
The Tigers must win both games to earn a share of the ICC title with Ritter.
The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed. Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email by visiting shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.
