Men's Basketball holds off Marshalltown

The flow of college basketball is so crazy a team could build up a 24-point lead at halftime, then be struggling to hang on just a few minutes into the second half.

Ensuring such a trend doesn't again engulf the Triton College men's basketball team anytime soon likely will be the subject of coach John Clancy's practices as the Trojans proceed with a school-record eight-game homestand through February.

Clancy said that going into their game Jan. 29 in River Grove with Marshalltown Community College, he gladly would have taken the 71-61 final score that actually transpired. But the manner in which Triton's 18^th win of the season was constructed had Clancy scratching his head and going back to tutorials with his players.

Guard Teonta McKeithen and big man Patrick Suemnick carved up Marshalltown with long-range shooting through much of the first half, making the first game of the homestand appear to be a rout for the second half.

However, the visiting Tigers (10-14), who had lost five in a row entering the contest, zoomed to a 20-2 run out of the halftime break to make it a game. Marshalltown eventually cut the lead down to five points on several occasions before Triton righted itself and locked down the win in the final minute.

"I didn't expect to be 24 up," Clancy said. "As good as we played in the first half; we played equally bad in the second half. I'm proud of the way we finished."

Marshalltown's press, disrupting Triton's offense, got them back into the game quickly. The hosts' 44-20 lead dwindled to 46-40 within six minutes. Leading Tigers scorer David Roberts got hot. His three-point play further cut the lead to 54-49 with just under 10 minutes to go.

"We weren't organized," Clancy said.  "We had the two bigs (Suemnick and Deangelo Elisee) on the floor. We haven't really worked on pressing offense. We've got to do better job. Our defensive energy has to be better throughout."

Fortunately for the Trojans, the likes of guards Brandon Muntu and Cobie Montgomery took over the momentum from McKeithen and Suemnick, hitting key shots to prevent the Tigers from coming all the way back.

Marshalltown could not stop McKeithen and Suemnick early on. Each totaled 11 points with nine minutes to go in the first half. McKeithen nailed a quartet of three pointers, while Suemnick had a pair of treys.

"That was probably the best 20 (minutes) all year," Clancy said. "But it was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is hard to play with a lead. Hopefully we'll learn to have that killer instinct to put somebody away."

McKeithen led Triton with 24 points, while West Virginia-bound Suemnick had 14. Muntu had a well-timed 12. Daylan Hamilton finished the balanced attack with 10 points.

The Trojans' long homestand -- including games with Highland, Kankakee and Daley -- will end with a trip to Indian Hills in Iowa for a rematch in the final game of the regular season. Then, potentially up to three home playoff games will be on the schedule if the Trojans can secure the top seed. All Region IV tournament games will be hosted by the higher seed.
 
Triton moved up three spots to No. 15 in the latest NJCAA Division I poll released Jan. 31 and moved up a pair of spots to No. 5 in the media poll released on Jan. 30.

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(Story by tritonathletics.com contributor George Castle)