By Dee Grenert Sports Editor
FULTON — Triton’s boys basketball team leans heavily upon senior forward Colton Keel in big games.
He showed why Saturday.
The 6-foot-4 Keel, who twice hit game-winning tip-ins during Triton’s run to the Class A state crown last season, scored 25 points, yanked down 10 rebounds and dished out six assists to lead the No. 1 Trojans to their fourth consecutive Community State Bank Holiday Tourney title with an 88-56 win over LaVille at Caston.

“Colton’s a great player,” Triton head coach Jason Groves said. “He’s been a leader with us for three years, and now he’s a senior. This is what we expect from him. We expect him to step up in big games, and he did a great job tonight.”
Despite drawing double- and triple-team attention from the Lancers, tourney MVP Keel still hit 8-of-11 field-goal attempts and displayed exceptional passing prowess from the post and perimeter. He scored eight points during a 10-0 first-quarter run, and added another six as part of a 15-2 third-quarter spree that converted a 10-point Triton advantage into a 64-41 bulge with 46 seconds left in the frame.
“(Keel) is a college player playing against our high school kids,” LaVille head coach Michael Edison said. “A couple of our kids were playing eighth grade ball at this time last year. We didn’t do a good enough job keeping two guys on him and getting a third to rotate over.
“He’s tough,” Edison added. “There were a couple times that we had a fairly decent trap on him, and he just pinpointed a pass across the court to someone.”
Triton senior guard Joel Meister — an all-tourney team selection himself — wore out the driving lanes, tying for game-best honors with 25 points and four steals, while holding high-scoring LaVille guard Jacob Mangus to just five points.
“Joel’s our defensive stopper, and he played great defense tonight,” Groves said. “He’s been a scorer for us this year, too. He’s been taking the ball to the basket well.”
Triton sophomore Griffyn Carpenter also garnered all-tourney honors, finishing with nine points and four steals, and senior Cody Carpenter added nine points.
Junior point guard Ben Montalbano dished out six assists and orchestrated an offense that turned the ball over just twice during the second half.
“(Montalbano) runs our offense so well,” Groves said. “He can penetrate and either kick out or drop off, and he also puts on a lot of defensive pressure. I thought he had a great game.”
LaVille senior Glenn Halasz followed up Friday’s 27-point effort with another 20 points against the Trojans. Freshman Jordyn Williams and sophomore Trenton Stout chipped in 10 points apiece for the Lancers.
After falling behind by as many as 19 points in the second quarter, the Lancers managed to chop their deficit to 10 points on three occasions in the third stanza, the final time with a Cody Coblentz jumper that brought the score to 49-39 at the 5:23 mark.
From there, the Trojans’ full-court defense turned the game into a fast-break drill. Triton scored 10 points, all during the big 15-2 spurt, off of eight LaVille third-quarter turnovers.
“We talked at halftime that we needed to crank up the defense and not let them get easy baskets, and we did,” Groves said. “(LaVille) had 31 at the half. Defensively, we’re averaging 47 points a game. We told the guys if they scored 31 in the second half, that’s 62 and that’s too many. They took that to heart.”
According to Edison, the Lancers expected the defensive uptick.
“We got it down to 10 points, but I had the feeling that at any time they could turn on the jets,” Edison said. “The turnovers led to about eight points — eight more points — awful quick.
“They’re a great team,” he said of the Trojans. “I think Triton should be ranked in the top three teams in northern Indiana. They’re very talented.”
In the consolation round, AJ Neace’s steal with five seconds to play helped Culver Community hold off Caston, 39-36.
All-tourney pick Zoe Bauer led the Cavs with 11 points.
Triton hosts Glenn in a big Northern State Conference clash Saturday, while Culver and LaVille both return home Tuesday — LaVille against NorthWood, Culver with Jimtown.
• COMMUNITY STATE BANK HOLIDAY TOURNEY
At Fulton
Championship game: Triton 88, LaVille 56
Score by quarters
LaVille: 10  31  44  56
Triton:    21  43  66  88
LAVILLE (56): Glenn Halasz 7 6-6 20, Jordyn Williams 4 1-1 10, Drew Dutoi 0 0-0 0, Cody Coblentz 1 2-3 4, Codee Kimbel 2 0-2 4, Jacob Mangus 2 0-0 5, Colton Priser 1 0-0 2, Justin Baker 0 1-2 1, Trenton Stout 3 1-2 10. TOTALS: 20 11-16 56.
TRITON (88): Ben Montalbano 2 2-2 6, Joel Meister 11 3-8 25, Dustin Kreft 0 0-0 0, Cody Carpenter 3 1-2 9, Austin Davis 3 2-3 8, Griffyn Carpenter 4 0-0 9, Colton Keel 10 5-5 25, Zac Moriarty 2 2-2 6. TOTALS: 35 15-22 88.
3-point goals: LaVille 5 (Stout 3, Williams, Mangus), Triton 3 (C. Carpenter 2, G. Carpenter); Turnovers: LaVille 23, Triton 12; Rebounds: LaVille 22 (Williams 7), Triton 25 (Keel 10); Assists: LaVille 13 (Halasz 4), Triton 17 (Keel, Montalbano 6), Steals: LaVille 6 (Halasz 3), Triton 14 (Meister, G. Carpenter 4); Fouls (fouled out): LaVille 19 (Halasz), Triton 15 (none); Records: LaVille 1-6, Triton 8-0.
Consolation round: Culver 39, Caston 36
Score by quarters
Caston:  6  16  26  36
Culver: 10  20  30  39
CASTON (36): Allen Russell 1 0-0 3, Trevor Hoover 2 2-3 7, Wes Rigney 3 4-5 10, Caleb Brown 0 0-0 0, Brant Hartman 0 0-0 0, Alex Herd 3 2-3 11, Sam Jones 2 1-2 5. TOTALS: 11 9-13 36.
CULVER (39): Adam Neace 2 2-5 6, Brock Elliott 0 1-2 1, Justin Master 3 0-0 6, Zoe Bauer 4 2-2 11, Patrick Mulvihill 0 0-0 0, Kyle Pugh 3 0-0 7, AJ Neace 3 1-2 8, Larry Clingler 0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 15 6-13 39.
3-point goals: Caston 5 (Herd 3, Russell, Hoover), Culver 3 (Bauer, Pugh, AJ Neace); Turnovers: Caston 13, Culver 13; Rebounds: Caston 19, Culver 25; Assists: Caston 11, Culver 10; Steals: Caston 5, Culver 7; Fouls (fouled out): Caston 15 (none), Culver 17 (none); Records: Caston 0-8, Culver 3-5.