#12 Triton Uses Stingy Defense To Gain Inter-region Series Sweep of No. 11 Southeastern
(Feb 13, 2022) River Grove, IL – In a chess match, defensive minded, national tournament type game, Triton led almost the entire game in route to a 62-55 stumping of Southeastern CC (IA). Southeastern never led.
According to Trojan Head Coach John Clancy, due to the diminishing number of DI programs in both Region 4 (Northern Illinois) and Region 11 (Iowa) the two regions set up home and home games between the three teams in Iowa and the top tier teams in Northern Illinois this season.
Region 11 is comprised of; Indian Hills, currently ranked #7 in latest NJCAA poll, #12 Southeastern CC, and Marshalltown. Participating from Region 4 were Triton, Highland CC, Sauk Valley and Kankakee.
After the sweep of the Blackhawks today, Triton is 4-1 vs IA, and Indian Hills is 6-1 over IL. Triton still has to pay a visit to power-house Indian Hills next Saturday. But if you ask Coach Clancy about the set up, I bet he’d tell you he is all for it to continue.
In this game, there were two early ties, at four and at 7. After that Triton was ahead, but never by very much, at least in the second half.
The Trojans took an 9 point lead, 16-7, after scoring nine straight. Then it was Southeastern turn as they immediately cut the deficit to one with eight consecutive of their own.
Triton stretched it back to 9 at 29-20 near the end of the first half, before taking a 29-23 lead into intermission.
Although the Blackhawks stayed within arms length, they never could catch the Trojans, falling to 20-5 on the season.
Triton finally extended the lead to double digits two minutes into the second period, and took their largest lead of 13 moments later at 38-25.
However, the 11th ranked Blackhawks were not done. They showcased some outstanding defense of their own, outscoring the hosts 17-4 over the next ten minutes to pull within two, 44-42.
That’s when Triton’s Brandon Muntu nailed a three ball right corner pocket at the 7:00 mark, which put an end to the Hawks momentum. The Trojans were able to maintain a 5-7 point lead for the remainder of the game, except when SCC cut it to four, 59-55 with just under a minute to play. But the lead was never fully in danger. as SE IA did not score again.
HC John Clancy had this to say following the victory, “Their team is loaded with guards and bigs that can play, and we were very fortunate to win this game, I could not be more proud of our toughness and togetherness.”
Regarding the game resembling a chess match Clancy had this reply, “That was an elite defensive effort out of our guys, who locked into the scouting report and game plan. I’m so proud of our fight. That’s a big time win for this program.”
Triton now, 23-3, had three in double figures with Teonta McKeithen posting a game high 14. He was followed by Cobie Montgomery with 13 and JJ Kalakon with 11. Next up for the Trojans is a home match against Richard J. Daley on Tuesday.
The Hawks also ended up with three players with ten+ points, led by Kennedy Milton’s 12. Gavin Kies filled in 11 and Bruce Carpenter had 10. Jesiah West, the Hawks leading scorer at 14 ppg was held to 4.
