Triton Central defeats Shelbyville in first meeting in five seasons

Triton Central led for all but about 15 seconds Tuesday in a 47-41 season-opening victory at Shelbyville’s William L. Garrett Gymnasium.

An 8-0 run in the third quarter gave the Golden Bears a 25-24 lead but a Kate Collier corner 3-pointer at the other end of the floor put the Tigers up the rest of the way.

Collier finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two blocks. Fellow senior Quinn King led Triton Central with 14 points, six rebounds, two assists and five steals.

The Tigers played without its third veteran guard, Layla Compton (photo), who suffered a knee injury near the end of Monday’s final preseason practice and may be sidelined for the season.

“Losing Layla, that is a massive piece we are going to miss this year,” said first-year head coach James Polston, a 2015 Triton Central graduate, who earned his first victory as a head coach. “We will have to find a way. When you go into the season thinking three of your five (starters) will be very experienced, we knew they would be on the floor most of the time. Now we take that down to two.”

The loss dropped Shelbyville to 0-2 this season.

The early season Hoosier Legends Conference battle looked like two teams hit hard by graduation and dealing with key injuries. Both teams combined to shoot just 30% from the field (23% from the 3-point line) and had 48 turnovers.

In the end, Triton Central limited its second-half turnovers and hit four 3s to get the win.

“We were talking at halftime, if we hit half of our layups we’d be up 20,” said Polston. “If we cut our turnovers in half too, we would be up 30. It was gritty. It wasn’t pretty but we found a way to win and that’s the name of the game.”

Despite shooting 17% in the first half and committing 16 turnovers, Shelbyville only trailed at halftime 18-12.

“We missed a ton of open layups,” lamented second-year Shelbyville head coach Kylie Weichman. “We missed a lot of open posts because (Triton Central) was really keying in on Jayla (Ash). We have to do a better job of seeing people that are open – and finish around the rim.”

With the graduation of Hannah Baker and Savannah Collins, the Golden Bears have struggled to take care of the ball and get into effective offensive sets.

“I’m trying to find a point guard,” said Weichman. “It’s by committee right now. Jayla definitely has the skills to run that position, but you can’t ask a single player to beat five opponents on the floor at any given time. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure things out.”

Ash, a junior, finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds Tuesday against Triton Central. Sixteen of her points came in the second half.

Nevaeh Cole hit a 3-pointer very early in the fourth quarter but no other Golden Bear, except Ash, contributed offensively over the final eight minutes.

“Right now, Jayla has a lot of pressure on herself. Not from the staff, but what she places on herself as a competitor and she wants to win,” said Weichman.

The Golden Bears never trailed by more than six points over the entire fourth quarter but struggled to hit free throws (5 of 12 in the quarter) that would have put more pressure on the Tigers, who also played their first game without the program’s career scoring leader, Maryrose Felling, who is playing collegiately now at Marian University in Indianapolis.

“I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew they would be ready to play,” said Polston of his team’s reaction to the Compton injury. “They were a little jittery. The first timeout, I told them all to take a deep breath. At halftime, I literally had them all yell and scream hoping they would calm down a little bit.”

Rylee Pruitt finished with nine points for Triton Central, who has won six straight over Shelbyville. Tuesday’s meeting was the first for the two programs since 2021.

Maddie Burnett finished with seven points and eight rebounds despite fouling out early in the fourth quarter.

Cole and Chloe Higdon each scored eight points. Camille Chaney had seven points and six rebounds.

Shelbyville played without senior Kiah Pandoli and freshman Jillian Poe. Both are recovering from preseason injuries and are tracking to return by the end of this month, according to Weichman.

The junior varsity game was limited to two quarters. Shelbyville prevailed 23-18.

Maranda McKinney led the Golden Bears with seven points. Abigail Gwinnup and Ava Megerle each scored six.

Breanna Williams led Triton Central with eight points. Kenzie Hoover finished with seven points.

Triton Central opens the home schedule Friday against another conference opponent in Beech Grove (2-0, 1-0 HLC).

Shelbyville has its first road game of the season Thursday at Tri-West, who has not yet played a game this season.

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