Drew Stichter makes contact with Oregon-Davis’ Jeffrey Avery during a game at the Trojan Trench Wednesday night. (Photos by James Costello)

BOURBON — Triton’s boys basketball team got off to a slow start to the season, and that slow start eventually doomed the Trojans against Class A, No. 10 Oregon-Davis Wednesday night.

The home team started 0 for 11 from the floor over a scoreless first quarter and spotted the visiting Bobcats the game’s first nine points in the season-opener for both teams at the Trojan Trench. The Trojans finally got their offense rolling in the second period and whittled their way back to within a point, but they never got out front and OD’s 9-0 start ended up making up most of the final margin in a 42-31 defeat.

“When you’ve got a lot of inexperienced guys, guys that aren’t used to scoring, that’s going to happen early in the season,” said Triton head coach Jason Groves of his Trojans’ cold start. “We’ve got, obviously, a lot of room for improvement, but I liked their fight. They fought back, got themselves back in the game. I thought we played good defense. I thought the kids did a nice job executing the game plan defensively, and really they did a nice job executing the game plan offensively — we just couldn’t hit shots.”

The Trojans (0-1) scuffled to an 11-of-42 (26.2 percent) mark from the field for the night, including a 2-for-17 (11.8 percent) clip from 3-point range. They didn’t fare much better at the foul line, either, converting just 7 of their 14 free throw opportunities versus OD (1-0).

Defense kept the home team hanging around, however, as the Trojans limited OD to 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) shooting from the floor over the first half. OD’s nine unanswered points at the front end wound up being the Bobcats’ biggest run of the night, but the visitors did finish at a 10-of-16 (62.3 percent) clip after the break, aided largely by senior guard Trevor Risner’s 5-of-5 shooting in the second half on his way to a game-high 21 points.

“He looked to attack the basket a little bit more, curled off some screens and used his height advantage against (Beau) Hepler a little bit to get to the basket, get to the free throw line. He did a nice job being active, I thought,” explained Groves of Risner’s second-half performance.

Although the Trojans had few answers for Risner in the second half, they did limit the usually prolific 3-point shooting Bobcats to 2 of 10 triples Wednesday. Groves gave a big part of the credit to senior forward Drew Stichter, who was able to keep OD’s Jonathon Clark in front of him, cutting off his ability to drive and kick and with it the Bobcats’ ability to work from the inside-out.

‘Drew Stichter did a great job on Clark,” said Groves. “He was kind of able to contain him a little bit, contest him, did an awesome job on him, and that helped us be able to stay out on their shooters – Campbell and Risner — a little bit more because we were able to contain him. If we weren’t able to contain him, we would’ve had a little bit of a tougher time contesting those guys so Drew deserves a lot of credit for that.”

Ross Johnson drives around Jonathon Clark in the first half.

While Risner put up 21, and Clark finished with nine, Triton’s Ross Johnson scored a team-high 15 for the Trojans.

The Warsaw senior transfer scored eight unanswered points for his team as Triton closed the first half on an 8-0 run, and he opened the second half scoring by pulling down a defensive rebound and taking it the length of the floor for a transition lay-in that brought the Trojans to within one point at 15-14 at the 7:12 stop of the third. OD went on a 10-4 tear over the remainder of the period, however, and Risner’s 3-pointer from the wing at the 7:20 stop of the fourth pushed the Bobcats’ lead out to double digits at 28-18.

“He’s a good basketball player,” said Groves of Johnson. “He’s a smart player; he knows how to get to the basket. I’ve seen that in practice. He scores quite a bit in practice. He just needs to get his confidence and kind of feel where he fits in with the team and how our team fits together. That’s one thing we’re still struggling with — we don’t have an identity yet — but that’s something we can develop over time.”

Triton got little meaningful offensive production behind Johnson as sophomore Quentin Thornburg knocked down a pair of treys on his way to six points, and senior Dylan Hensley scored five points on a rough 2-for-10 shooting night. Many of Hensley’s attempts rattled in and out as he struggled to find a finishing touch inside early. He finally got going with four straight points early in the final period, but just as soon as he did he was whistled for a fourth foul and had to be pulled from the floor.

Dylan Hensley drives on Trevor Wilson in the fourth period.

“To be honest with you, we don’t shoot this poorly in practice. Maybe it’s our defense is really bad in practice,” joked Groves. “We’ve just got to be able to knock those shots in. I think part of it is just confidence, wondering what our role is. I think once we missed some it got contagious, and people got hesitant. When that happens, it’s not a good thing.”

OD plays another Sectional 51 rival in the Bobcats’ home-opener opposite South Central (Union Mills) Dec. 1. The Trojans play host to Plymouth next Tuesday with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Triton’s JV fell 38-31 to Oregon-Davis.

Kaden Atkins scored 10 points with six rebounds and three steals to lead the Trojans, while Dylan Murphy scored 17, and Gavin Sibo had 11 for OD.

Beau Hepler looks for a way around Jeffrey Avery Wednesday.