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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Boys basketball: North White 60, Caston 57 (Monday)
Bentley Buschman scored 17 points to lead four players in double figures as the North White boys basketball team beat host Caston 60-57 Monday.
Jeffrey Stevens added 14, and Wes Miller and Hunter Pogue had 12 each for the Vikings, who snapped Caston’s nine-game winning streak while extending their own winning streak to seven.
Bryce Rudicel led Caston with 16 points. Kade Zeider added 12 – all on 3-point shots in the second half – and Sam Smith had 11.
The game was tied 38-38 after three quarters. North White outscored Caston 22-19 in the fourth quarter. Buschman, who joined Pogue in the 1,000-point club earlier in the game, scored nine points in the fourth quarter.
Class 1A, No. 8 North White made more free throws (13) than Caston attempted (7).
This was the teams’ first meeting since Smith’s buzzer beater gave Caston a 55-54 win over North White in last year’s Class 1A, Sectional 52 final.
Caston (12-5) hosts North Judson at 8 p.m. Friday in a battle of the last two undefeated teams in the Hoosier North.
NORTH WHITE (60) (12-3)
Miller 4 4-4 12, Pogue 4 3-3 12, Denton 0 0-0 0, Buschman 6 4-7 17, Stevens 6 2-2 14, Hood 2 0-0 5, Orr 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 22 13-16 60
CASTON (57) (12-5)
Joey Spin 4 0-0 9, Kade Zeider 4 0-0 12, Bryce Rudicel 7 2-2 16, Jake Paschen 2 2-2 7, Sam Smith 4 3-3 11, Colby Pugh 0 0-0 0, Cain Schanlaub 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 22 7-7 57
Three-point field goals:
North White 3 (Pogue, Buschman, Hood),
Caston 6 (Zeider 4, Spin, Paschen)
Total fouls: North White 9, Caston 14
Score by quarters
North White 14 6 18 22 – 60
Caston 12 11 15 19 – 57
Boys basketball: Caston 55, Triton 50 (Saturday)
After their game against Triton Saturday, Caston boys basketball coach Carl Davis tracked down Triton senior guards Tyson Yates and Ashton Oviedo and gave him high praise.
“I told Tyson and Ashton both that I hate preparing for them, and with them playing as much as they did right out of the gate as freshmen, we’ve been preparing a lot for them, and we had the extra game in the regional,” Davis said. “And you add the two overtimes there and you ad the overtime period that we had here two years ago (a 60-52 Caston win on Feb. 8, 2020), we’ve seen a lot of Ashton and Tyson, and they’re just outstanding basketball players. They’re so fun to watch when you’re not having to worry about them. … For these kids to get a victory here on our home floor today is huge.”
Triton might not be Caston’s archrival, but they might be their measuring stick. Caston came into the game 1-6 against Triton since they became Hoosier North rivals in the 2015-16 school year, including last year’s double overtime loss at Triton in a Class 1A regional semifinal.
So what happened Saturday could be construed as significant.
Sam Smith had 16 points, including two critical insurance free throws with 17.7 seconds left, and Joey Spin hit three 3-pointers and added 11 to lead the host Comets to a 55-50 win over the Trojans.
Kade Zeider, Jake Paschen and Bryce Rudicel added eight points each for Caston, who won their ninth straight game and improved to 12-4 overall and 5-0 in the Hoosier North.
Caston and North Judson are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the Hoosier North, and they will meet at Caston at 6:30 p.m./8 p.m. (JV/Varsity) Friday.
Tyson Yates scored a game-high 17 points, and Cole Shively added 12 for Triton, who fell to 11-5, 3-2.
After Smith’s free throws made it 53-50, Triton set up a weave play that led to an Oviedo 3-point try off the dribble, but the shot missed. Smith rebounded and found Spin on a jump pass, who fed Paschen for an uncontested layup as time expired.
“I knew they were going to be a hard team,” Smith said. “We’ve played them since fifth grade, the same boys, and it’s great to get a win over them. That’s for sure.”
Caston took a 23-21 lead when Paschen rimmed in a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:10 left in the half, and they never trailed again.
Smith scored the first six points of the second half, and Rudicel’s off-balance scoop banker and a Spin 3-pointer from the left corner gave Caston a 34-25 lead and led to a Triton timeout.
Zeider answered a Shively 3-point play with a trey from the left corner.
With the score 37-30, Cain Schanlaub, Caston’s backup 6-4 junior big man, had a block on one end and a flying tip-in on the other to increase the lead to nine again.
The lead was 39-32 after three quarters and reached nine again (43-34) on a Rudicel free throw with 6:01 left.
Triton then responded with a 9-1 run that Oviedo capped with a 3-pointer off the bounce to cut the lead to 44-43.
But Caston had the response.
Spin hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Yates put back his own miss, but Paschen scored on a short jumper after a press breaker to make it 49-45.
Shively’s driving 3-point play with 1:17 left cut the lead to one, but Zeider answered with two free throws with 56.2 seconds left to make it 51-48. But Shively drove and scored again to make it 51-50.
After a post feed to Smith was knocked out of bounds, Triton’s Caden Graham fouled Smith with 17.7 seconds left.
“I didn’t mind the ball in my hands at that point,” Smith said. “I just really had to focus on the rim and not focus on what we had at stake. Just focus on putting the ball through the hole.”
For Davis, this was took a team effort, whether it was Smith and Zeider’s free throws or Schanlaub’s tip-in or Colby Pugh’s driving bucket just before the first-quarter buzzer or the performance of a little-used sophomore in the third quarter.
“I’m just really impressed with the way that every guy that stepped on the floor played tonight,” Davis said. “I think you can go down the list and you can mention about everybody and something that they did really well. I want to make sure it doesn’t get overlooked (but) Caleb Stinson’s minutes in the third quarter… When we had three guys in foul trouble there, having the confidence in him, to go to him in the third quarter in a conference game with big implications and him to step in and play solid… I thought he played great defensively and took care of the basketball for us. Those were big-time minutes from him to give us in that spot.”
Triton coach Jason Groves said Caston and Triton “definitely” have a mutually respectful rivalry.
“Obviously, these guys are good basketball players, and our guys are good basketball players,” Groves said. “It seems like right now, it seems like every other game is back and forth. So yeah, you’ve got a good group coming through like that, and they both square up against each other a lot each year, and it becomes kind of like a rivalry just to be able to play each other and compete like we did, and it’s been great games, I think, every time we’ve played these guys throughout high school. Unfortunately, they got the best of us (today).”
Caston 55, Triton 50
TRITON (50) (11-5, 3-2)
Cole McKinney 2 0-0 4, Ashton Oviedo 2 2-2 7, Tyson Yates 6 5-6 17, Cole Shively 5 2-2 12, Bruce Johnson 2 0-0 4, Chandler Westafer 0 1-2 1, Caden Graham 2 0-0 5, Connor Large 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 19 10-12 50
CASTON (55) (12-4, 5-0)
Joey Spin 4 0-1 11, Kade Zeider 2 2-2 8, Jake Paschen 3 1-2 8, Bryce Rudicel 3 2-4 8, Sam Smith 6 4-6 16, Colby Pugh 1 0-0 2, Cain Schanlaub 1 0-0 2, Caleb Stinson 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 9-15 55
Three-point field goals:
Triton 2 (Oviedo, Graham),
Caston 6 (Spin 3, Zeider 2, Paschen)
Total fouls: Triton 16, Caston 16
Turnovers: Triton 13, Caston 14
Score by quarters
Triton 9 12 11 18 – 50
Caston 11 12 16 16 – 55
