Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central preparing for familiar foe in regional championship game

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central departed the Indiana Crossroads Conference at the end of the 2025 school year. For the Tigers to continue this season’s postseason run, it will need to secure a second straight win over a former ICC foe.

Triton Central, with a program record 22 wins, battles Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter (14-12) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Greenfield-Central High School.

The Tigers captured a second consecutive sectional title with a win over the reigning ICC champions – Indianapolis Scecina. A defense allowing on average 40 points per game limited the Crusaders to 39 in the win. It was the second time this season Triton Central held Scecina more than 20 points below its season average (65 ppg).

For Ritter, the ICC runner-up this season, the challenge is keeping Triton Central’s possession-to-possession offense from controlling the game. That puts added pressure on Devin Bolden (21.2 ppg, 12.8 rpg), the reigning Indianapolis City Player of the year, to keep the Raiders on track.

“It will be a war,” said Triton Central head coach Mark James, who is 0-2 against the Raiders while serving as the Tigers’ head coach. “They will be very prepared. We know who they are. They know who we are. We will have to play it one possession at a time and see what happens.”

For the Raiders to succeed, the defense has to figure out how to stop Triton Central’s career scoring leader Eli Sego (photo), who can affect a game in many ways. He missed five of his first six shots but hit the game winner in the final 15 seconds to get Triton Central at 47-45 win over Eastern Hancock in the sectional opener. He scored 27 points on just 10 shots in a 63-43 sectional semifinal win over Heritage Christian.

Against Scecina, he scored 12 points, nearly 10 below his season average, but finished with eight rebounds, two assists, three steals and a myriad of bruises from taking a charge and diving out of bounds for a loose ball.

“This took a lot out of us to get it done,” said Sego after the 44-39 win over the Crusaders.

The Tigers won three games in four days over opponents all with double-digit wins this season.

“Three games in four days is very tough,” said James. “We survived that. That is hard to do against the people we played against.”

Sego now had 1,639 career points which puts him seventh all-time in Shelby County history. He needs 14 points to surpass Morristown’s Jerry Bass (1,652) for sixth on the list.

What opponents have found this season is double teaming Sego leads to other Tigers picking up the slack. Five players – Jackson Faust (7.2 ppg), Brody Hartman (6.8 ppg), Henry Kemper (5.5 ppg), Grant Long (5.4 ppg) and Brayden Hoover (4.5 ppg) are all capable of scoring in double digits.

On the other hand, allow Sego room to operate and he will torch a defense for nearly 30 points. He has had at least 27 points eight times this season and surpassed 30 on three separate occasions.

The Rose-Hulman commit is averaging nearly 22 ppg while taking just 13 shots on average. He is shooting 56% from the field, 47% from the 3-point line (70 made 3s) and 88% from the free-throw line.

In Ritter’s 58-52 win last season in Fairland, Bolden (photo) finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. As a freshman, he totaled 13 points and eight rebounds in Ritter’s 60-48 victory.

Bolden reached 1,000 career points this season – the sixth Raider to accomplish the feat – and he is now the program’s career rebounds leader. He is not a one man show, though.

Senior Cheick Wade is averaging 15.2 ppg while shooting 48% from the field and 33% from the 3-point arc. Senior Rylan Coleman (7.7 ppg, 5.1 apg) and junior Thomas McDowell III (7.8 ppg, 5.0 apg) also contribute to an offense averaging nearly 63 ppg this season.

Ritter (photo) celebrated its first sectional championship since 2009 with wins over Indianapolis Riverside (61-49), Park Tudor (66-51) and University (71-56).

It was University that defeated Triton Central last season, 44-43, in the regional championship game in Lebanon. That experience could prove valuable to the Tigers Saturday night.

“It helps tremendously,” said Sego of that experience. “There are so many young guys that didn’t experience that and we can guide them through that.”

For Sego and fellow seniors Grant Long and Conner McClure, the end is near. They’ve already left their mark capturing back-to-back sectional championships for the third time in school history and racking up a 22-3 mark.

A regional title would extend their career at least one more week.

“A little bit,” said Sego when asked how much he thinks about his final days as a Tiger. “Every game that goes on is one less game I get to play. I am making the most of it right now.”

The other 2A regional pairings in southern Indiana include No. 1 Paoli (26-0) taking on No. 8 Linton-Stockton (23-4) at Seymour; No. 4 Parke Heritage (23-4) battling No. 5 Centerville (24-2) at Martinsville; and Austin (16-8) going against Forest Park (13-13) at Charlestown.

The semistate pairings and sites will be released at 2 p.m. Sunday during the IHSAA Pairings Show that will air live on IHSAAtv.org.

The semistate host sites in southern Indiana are New Castle, Southport, Seymour and Washington.

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