When things get rolling for the Triton College men's basketball team, they are tough to stop. Indian River State College (FL) found that out the hard way in the second half of the NJCAA Division I Championship round of 16 game Wednesday night in Hutchinson, Kan.
The No. 11 seeded Trojans took control with a 58-point outburst the final 20 minutes and the No. 6 seed Pioneers had no answers as Triton pulled away for a 97-84 win.
"Being in the "Sweet Sixteen" is sweet, but in order to be elite and get in the "Elite Eight" you got to be tough and thought we showed some toughness, togetherness and grit in the second half," said Triton head coach
John Clancy.
The Trojans (29-5) will move on to the quarterfinals to square off against the No. 3 seed, Kilgore College (TX) Thursday evening at 8 p.m. at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The Rangers (31-2) knocked off South Plains 56-48 in their second round game on Wednesday after receiving a first round bye.
Triton trailed 40-39 at halftime as Indian River closed the first half on a 13-6 run to erase a six-point Trojan advantage.
"I thought we started the game really well," said Clancy. "But I was not happy with the way we closed the first half and told our team at halftime that we had to be tougher or our season was going to end."
The Trojans came out of the locker room with a sense of urgency as
Patrick Suemnick helped set the tone immediately on the first possession with an alley-hoop dunk from
JJ Kalakon to spark an opening eight point spurt three minutes into the second half to give Triton the lead for good at 47-40.
Indian River (28-5) pulled within 54-50 two minutes later before another Trojan run pushed the margin to double-digits. Triton went on a 13-5 run thanks to the play of
Cam Denson and
Deangelo Elisee.
After an Elisee bucket inside made it 56-50, the Purdue-Fort Wayne bound center got a dunk off an excellent pass from Denson. Later in the run, Denson drilled a three-pointer and followed with a layup to put the Trojans up 63-52 with 12:31 remaining. Another Elisee basket off a Denson assist and pair of Kalakon free throws capped the run to push the Triton lead to 67-55 with just under 12 minutes to play.
The Trojans built their biggest cushion which was 15 points at 88-73 with 3:55 to go after another three-pointer by Denson.
Triton had six players in double-figures led by Suemnick's 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field along with nine rebounds. Denson finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Kalakon and
Teonta McKeithen scored 14 points apiece.
Cobie Montgomery added 13 points and Elisee registered 12 points.
The Trojans as a team shot over 50 percent for the second consecutive national tournament game. Triton followed up their 54 percent performance in their round one win over Caldwell Tech with a 53.6 percent (37-69) output from the field against the Pioneers. The Trojans also had 23 assists to only nine turnovers.
"We can come at you in waves and are a team of runs," Clancy said. "But we have more work to do if we want to go from elite to the "Final Four Thursday night against Kilgore."
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