TROY – The Litchfield Purple Panthers visited the Triad Knights for a Friday night game to shake off the rust from the new year holiday. The hosts improved to 11-5 on the season after a 63-37 win. It was Triad’s third straight win and Litchfield’s third consecutive loss.
Triad wrapped up 2023 going 3-1 in the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic and was coming off a four-day break.
“We came off a really tough first half [of the season],” Triad head coach Jeff Guidry said. “Had a really good weekend at the Prairie Farms, coming out 3-1, winning fifth place, best finish in school history. Had a few days off, so we wanted to get a game in without too much time. Came out a little flat, a little slow, which is what I expected, but we responded, so, it was a good overall effort.”
The Knights trailed briefly Friday night at 2-1 but took the lead at 3-2 from a Tyler Thompson basket and never relinquished that lead again. Triad led 11-8 after the first quarter.
Then the Knights opened the second quarter on an 8-2 run to increase the lead to 19-10, eventually leading 31-16 at halftime.
Triad opened the second half on a similar 11-1 run to boost the lead to 42-17. The Knights outscored the Panthers 17-9 in the third to make it 48-25 after three. Litchfield knocked some shots down in the fourth but was still outscored 15-12 in the final frame as the Knights went on to the 63-37 win.
Nolan Keller and Thompson both led Triad with 14 points apiece.
Drew Winslow scored nine and moved into the top five all-time leading scorers for Triad. That put him at 208 points so far in his senior season and an even 1,350 career points. He’s averaging 14.8 points per game this season. As a junior, he scored 468 points and averaged 14.6 PPG.
Friday’s game almost didn’t happen though. Guidry mentioned that it was a late addition to the schedule.
“The way the calendar worked this year, we were kind of scrambling to try and find a game for today,” he said. “So, thankful for Litchfield coming down here and playing. If we weren’t able to find this game we wouldn’t have played until maybe next Friday.”
Triad is scheduled to play at Eldorado on Monday and then jumps back into Mississippi Valley Conference action next Friday at Jerseyville.
The Knights have now won four out of their last five thanks to a nice showing in Collinsville.
“It was a tough bracket; we had a tough draw,” Guidry said. “We beat three really good teams, went to the wire with one of the best teams in the state in the second game, so to come out 3-1 with a trophy, that was our goal.”
That second game he alluded to was a 51-47 loss to Althoff Catholic. The Crusaders are 12-3 on the season and one of the state’s best in IHSA Class 2A. They fell to Quincy in the semifinals and then beat Belleville East for third place in the Collinsville tourney.
Triad beat Decauter Eisenhower (45-29), O’Fallon (56-44), and Lincoln (39-37) to take fifth place.
The Knights kept that momentum going into the new year as they begin to take on the second half of their season.
“We’re playing well right now,” Guidry said. “Still got some things to do to get to the level we need to, but I think we’re on a good path.”
