Eastern Stars

Trenton Clinches GRC East Titles With Wins At Putnam County

The Trenton High School basketball teams embarked on a bus bound for Unionville on Tuesday night with one mission on their minds – win Grand River Conference East Division titles.
Both teams accomplished that goal, wrapping up the division titles with one game remaining on the conference slate. The Trenton girls did so with a dominating 43-27 victory while the boys outshot Putnam County on the way to an 83-73 victory.
Trenton Girls
The Trenton girls’ only scare in this game came when all-district forward Whitley Richman went down with an ankle injury in the first half. Trenton has had a run of ankle trouble lately as Salem Croy has missed the last two games with an ankle sprain. Richman’s injury didn’t appear to be as serious, however.
Before going down, Richman had seven first quarter points, helping lift Trenton to a 19-6 advantage early on. Mykah Hurley, who had eight first-quarter points – six of which came from a pair of three balls – and Ainsley Tolson would take over after Richman departed. Hurley would go on to be the leading scorer on the night with 12 points and Tolson added 11.
“It was nice to see us come out firing offensively,” Trenton Head Coach Brian Upton said. “We really moved the ball well and shot well in the first half. Unfortunately, Whit twisted her ankle toward the end of the first quarter and she had really started off well. Whit, Mykah and Ainsley really got us going there in the first quarter.”
Trenton would push the lead to 31-13 by halftime and dominated Putnam County with a suffocating defense throughout the night. The Midgets managed just 27 points for the game as Trenton cruised to the GRC East Division Title.
“Defensively, we were really good again, Upton said. “We had to go deep in the bench tonight, being down two starters, and they really responded. Everyone played and they all helped in some way to our victory.
Hurley added two steals to her 12 points and Tolson grabbed two assists and three steals to add to her 11 points. Ashten Whitaker followed Richman’s seven points with five of her own and added three assists. Taylor Richman had four points, four rebounds and two assists and Sidney Lynch had two points, seven rebounds and two assists. Saedee Jackson had two points as well to round out Trenton’s total.
Trenton improved to 18-2 overall on the season and 6-0 in the Grand River Conference with the win.
“We clinched the division in our conference with the win, which was one of our season goals,” Upton said. “Hopefully, we will be more full-strength for Friday’s conference championship game. The status for Whit and Salem is unknown for (tonight’s) game. I’m pretty sure Salem will be out. We will have to see how Whit’s ankle looks.”
Trenton Boys
The Trenton boys found themselves in a difficult situation – a shootout with Putnam County. Not many teams can go toe-to-toe with the Midgets in a shootout and come out with a win, but the Bulldogs did just that behind a huge offensive night of their own.
With all of the offense it was easy to overlook a four-minute stretch at the end of the first half where Trenton’s defense was at its strongest. Trenton trailed 10-2 right off the bat, but battled back to tie the game at 18-18 after one quarter of play. The two teams continued to go back-and-forth over the first half of the second quarter, but Trenton’s defense began to pick up steals and get stops. That led to transition points and the Bulldogs took off. By halftime, Trenton had taken a 39-26 lead.
That margin lasted most of the second half with Putnam County drawing close on multiple occasions. Trenton answered every challenge, however, never losing the lead. In the end, Trenton had a 10-point victory and a GRC East title in spite of Putnam County’s Calvin Heidenwith connecting on 11 three-pointers and finishing with 36 points.
“It’s just like my dad said, ‘you are going to have to score points against (Putnam County) to win because they are going to get theirs.’” Trenton Head Coach Jeremy Austin said. “I was glad we were able to pick the pace up about midway through the first quarter. We started off pretty poorly.”
Trenton was paced by Spencer Harris, who nearly matched Heidenwith point-for-point by finishing with 28 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Connor Cotton followed with 18 points and eight rebounds and also added two assists and two steals.
“Spencer had a great offensive game,” Austin said. “He was able to get to the rim well when they made the outside shot tough. Cotton had a big impact even though he was in foul trouble all night. It was a fun game to be a part of and I am really proud of these guys.”
Behind Harris and Cotton, Trenton got 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals from Corbyn Guile and 13 points and three assists from Dylan Harris. Lathan Croy added six points, three assists and a team-high seven steals and Carson Radcliff rounded out the Trenton total with four points and two steals.
With the win, Trenton improved to 14-6 overall and 6-0 in the Grand River Conference.
Both Trenton squads are in Grand River Conference action tonight, hosting South Harrison in a make-up doubleheader that was postponed twice previously. The outcome of tonight’s GRC games has no bearing on Trenton’s division titles, which are locked up. Losses to South Harrison would create ties for both teams, the girls with Gallatin and the boys with Putnam County, but Trenton’s teams defeated both of those squads head-to-head meaning the Bulldogs would still play for the conference championship on Friday night.
Trenton will host Stanberry, which swept the GRC West Division titles, on Friday in the Grand River Conference championship games.
Tonight’s South Harrison doubleheader and Friday’s GRC title tilt are both scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. with the girls’ game and the boys will follow.