HAMLET — It will be the Bi-County final that never was at the Oregon-Davis girls basketball sectional as Triton and Argos will finally get a chance to play the game that was taken by COVID two weeks ago.
Triton moves on with a convincing 46-20 win over LaCrosse and Argos made the “re-match” complete with a just as convincing win over Culver 57-38.
Triton 46, LaCrosse 20
Triton coach Adam Heckaman needed an early time out to set the ship right and then pound home a win over the Tigers.
With the game tied at six five minutes in Heckaman called the time out and from there it was nothing but Triton forcing 26 turnovers and overwhelming LaCrosse on the defensive end holding them to just 10 points in the first three quarters.
“We were trying to do too much at the beginning and not using each other like we are capable of doing,” said Heckaman. “We called time out quick and got that straightened out. We are going to have to start out a lot better tomorrow night.”
The Lady Trojan defense made it difficult for LaCrosse to accomplish much of anything with the basketball and while their shooting wasn’t terrible percentage wise, they had an extremely difficult time getting a shot off.
“It’s something that we worked on in practice taking passing lanes away,” said Heckaman. “Not necessarily hard traps but making it hard for them to get the ball back out of the corner.”
“Tomorrow night we are going to have to do a better job covering up the paint.”
Offensively Triton spread the wealth with Taren Yates and Emma Hepler giving an outside push and Addyson Viers having a big night underneath.
“We have six players averaging between six to eight points a game so it’s hard to figure out who to key in on,” said Heckaman. “Tonight it was the same, Taren (Yates) got going with steals and easy buckets, Emma (Hepler) hit some threes, Addyson (Viers) stepped in and had some great passes, some rebounds, and put backs. It makes it easier to know that we have a lot of kids that can put the ball in the basket.”
Yates ended the night with 15 points Abby Viers had seven points and five rebounds with Addyson Viers hitting eight points.
The Lady Trojans are 11-11 headed to tonight’s final.
Argos 57, Culver 38
It was far too much pressure, too soon for Culver as the Lady Dragons blitzed them early running to a 9-0 lead forcing 10 first-quarter turnovers and never looking back to head to the sectional final.
“I wanted to get some energy going and get their legs moving,” said Argos head coach Scott Jennings. “It’s been a while since we’ve played so we came out and started with some pressing and started pulling away a little. They crept back and hit some threes on us but that energy, they brought it early and that’s what I wanted out of them.”
Struggling to put together any kind of offense the Lady Cavs could manage just one basket in the first quarter while Argos’ Elizabeth Edmonds had four points and six rebounds in the first eight minutes alone.
“Sometimes you get after it a little you can force some turnovers,” said Jennings. “That’s what we wanted to do is stay out of foul trouble early and get them throwing the ball away a little bit, and that worked out well for us.”
“You really have to give them all the credit,” said Culver coach Shane Lowry. “Whatever they did was working. What they built on by what they did in the bi-county. They hit their shots, they were in the right place on defense, and forced us to do things that we didn’t want to do.”
Edmonds was a force ending the night with a double/double of 12 points and 14 rebounds. Not far behind was Madi VanDerWeele who took over on the perimeter whenever Edmonds slowed down inside and was just shy of her own double/double with 12 points and eight rebounds.
“We talked about early in the game we wanted to pound the ball inside,” said Jennings. “Your adrenaline is running, you come into a strange gym trying to shoot from the outside we thought we’d establish our inside game a little bit and knock shots down when we calm down a little bit.”
The Cavs were able to cut back the Argos lead but could never get closer than seven. Grace Sieber had 11 to lead the Lady Cavs, Alina Pizur had six rebounds and Baleigh Binkley had four assists.
“We are young on experience and putting a new system in with a COVID year,” said Lowry also in his first season as Culver head coach. “I thought we played through it. We didn’t quit. It’s hard to have a young team and go through a season like this.”
“Our best week was this last week,” he said. “It was our best week of practices, we won two out of three games at the end of the season in a very tough month of January.”
The loss ends the outstanding career of Culver’s only senior Maddie Shedrow.
“I can’t say enough about Maddie (Shedrow) and her career at Culver and all that she did for the Cavaliers. I’m just happy I had a chance to coach her for her senior year,” said Lowry. “We are going to miss her and we are going to miss what she brought to Cavalier basketball.”
Culver ends their season at 8-13. Argos heads to the championship game at 9-10.
Class 1A Sectional
At Oregon-Davis
•TRITON 46, LACROSSE 20
Triton 10 29 41 47
LaCrosse 6 9 10 20
Triton (46) — Yates 7 0-0 15, Atkins 1 0-0 3, Faulkner 1 0-0 2, Hepler 2 0-0 6, Ab. Viers 2 3-4 7, Hostrawser 2 0-0 4, Ad. Viers 4 0-0 8. Totals 18 3-4 47.
LaCrosse (20) — Gorski 2 0-0 6, Wozniak 2 0-0 6, Frazier 1 0-0 2, Hendrixson 1 0-0 3, Welkie 1 0-0 2, Bartels 0 1-2 1. Totals 6 1-2 20.
•ARGOS 57, CULVER 38
Argos 14 26 39 57
Culver 2 16 23 38
Argos (57) — Retinger 3 0-0 9, Shepherd 1 1-2 4, Stults 1 1-2 3, Dunlap 3 0-0 6, VanDerWeele 6 0-0 12, Miller 2 0-0 6, Bollenbacher 2 0-0 4, Edmonds 5 2-3 12, Markley 0 1-2 1. Totals 23 5-9 57.
Culver (38) — Sieber 4 0-0 11, Binkley 2 2-2 7, Shedrow 2 1-2 7, Banks 1 0-0 2, Pizur 2 0-0 4, Pugh 2 0-0 5, Garland 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 3-4 38.
