Mar. 13—BOURBON — The Caston Comets went toe-to-toe with HNAC champion Triton — a team they had lost by 19 to five weeks earlier — in a regional game on Saturday morning.
It took two overtimes to decide, but the Trojans outlasted the Comets 64-52 in what was an epic thriller in the first game of the Class A Triton Regional.
In a contest that took 40 minutes to complete, the Trojans (20-5) survived the Comets (10-16) to advance to Saturday night’s regional final.
“I’m just proud of our kids,” Caston coach Carl Davis said. “Our kids competed the whole night. We didn’t always make the play but we never stopped competing. We knew we had to do a better job of taking care of the basketball against them and we did that. We limited a lot of their transition opportunities. They’re really good, they’re really good in the halfcourt with their dribble penetration. I thought we did a better job at times in the second half. But you have to tip your cap to [Ashton] Oviedo specifically and also [Tyson] Yates. They just did a great job with dribble penetration and anytime we had help there they did a really good job of finding that guy.
“So what a great team and for us to come out here and battle the way we did for a double overtime game, I’m just really proud of our kids. I’m proud of the work they put in. The improvements that they’ve shown throughout the year were very obvious in a game where you’re playing a team that you played earlier in the year.”
The Comets had their chances to win but missed key free throws at the end of both regulation and overtime. At the end of regulation, Bryce Rudicel drew a foul with 17.9 seconds left with the Comets trailing 47-46. Rudicel missed the first but made the second which eventually forced overtime. Yates missed on a runner and his putback jumper was after the buzzer as the game went to OT.
In the first overtime, Sam Smith made 1 of 2 free throws with 1:46 left to tie the game at 50-all. The Trojans gave the Comets a bit of their own medicine as they went to a stall tactic similar to what Doug Hicks used to do when he had championship teams as the coach at Caston. The Trojans held the ball for the final 1:46 but Bruce Johnson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark and the game went to double overtime.
In four-minute overtime sessions, every play is big and the Trojans made the big plays in double OT. Oviedo scored on a drive to give them a quick lead. Yates then came up with a steal and fed Oviedo — who made an athletic finish after momentarily bobbling the ball to make it a two-possession game. Joey Spin missed on a runner and on the other end of the court, John Gardner scored an and-one on his second own putback attempt. The Comets tried to get the ball inside to Smith, who the Trojans had difficulty guarding all day, but turned it over. The Comets had just nine turnovers entering double OT but had four in the session. The Trojans were able to ice the game from the foul line.
Oviedo finished with 33 points, 12 of which came in the second overtime which included 8 of 9 shooting from the line. Yates had nine points and five assists. Gardner had eight points and 13 rebounds. Cole McKinney scored eight points and Johnson added six.
Smith had 17 points to lead the Comets despite sitting out 6:48 of the second quarter after picking up his second foul. Spin had 11 points and three assists while playing all 40 minutes against Triton’s pressure defense. Kade Zeider scored 10 points. Jessie Rock-Wolf had 10 points and five steals. Rudicel added three points, seven boards and three blocked shots.
Caston led 13-12 after one as Yates scored at the buzzer for Triton. Spin hit a pullup NBA 3 at the buzzer to give Caston a 29-26 lead at halftime. Caston led 35-34 after three. Triton opened the fourth with a 7-0 run before Caston erased a six-point deficit to force overtime.
After making 14 3-pointers against Tri-County and seven against North White in sectional wins, the Comets shot just 4 of 18 (22%) from distance against Triton but still nearly pulled off the upset.
“Going 4 of 18 from 3 and we’re in a double overtime game,” Davis said. “It tells you a lot about our kids and how they’ve done such a great job of competing and fighting and clawing to stay in games and we did that all night tonight and I’m just really proud of the kids.”
Rock-Wolf gave the Comets a lift off the bench with 10 points and five steals in 20 minutes in his final game.
“He played such a great game on both ends, defensively and scoring the basketball,” Davis said. “He found ways to score for us and gave us that burst that we needed today. So a great way for him to end his Caston career.”
Smith stepped into a bigger role this year following the graduation of Hunter Schanlaub and Mike Rans from last year’s sectional championship team and the junior elevated his play in the tournament.
“He’s continued to get better as the season’s went along and what he gave us last week in the sectional — and you can wipe out the game-winning basket — he just was so solid all week in the sectional last week for us and again tonight,” Davis said. “He did an unbelievable job getting his points when we needed them. I think it tells you a lot about our team, though, when he went got into foul trouble in the second quarter, we knew we could go to the bench and guys were going to step up and fill in. We went to the locker room with the lead at halftime and that had a lot to do with those guys off the bench coming in and giving us great minutes.”
The Comets fell just short of getting their first regional win since 1991 against Bellmont. But they will have a lot back next year from a team that won its second sectional title in a row and eighth in program history.
A sectional rematch with North White — which also has a strong junior class — could be in Caston’s future. Hopefully full crowds will also be in store after crowd sizes were limited this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Comets have an important summer coming up.
“We have kids that work hard,” Davis said. “We have kids that put time in the offseason, there’s no doubt about it. I know they’re definitely not happy with the result today. And I know they’ll put that work in the offseason with that in mind.”
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