Monday, February 2, 2004
Toledo senior leads Rockets’ comeback
Triplett scores 21 on 5-of-7 three-point shooting in victory
Article by:
Frank Rusnak - Sports Editor
• frusnak@northernstar.info
• Personal profile
Toledo’s Keith Triplett, who scored a game-high 21 points, led
his team in five statistical categories, but his coach didn’t seem
satisfied.
“By the way he plays, [he’s a leader],” Toledo coach
Stan Joplin said, after his team’s 77-64 road victory over NIU
on Saturday. “But I want him to talk more. He’s not where
I think he should be. Will he ever be? I doubt it. But he’s a work
in progress.”
Joplin added that Triplett needs to rebound better.
“He likes to float around the perimeter,” Joplin said.
At Saturday’s game, the 6-foot-3 senior had a team-high seven
rebounds. Staying around the perimeter, the MAC’s second-leading
scorer (19.8 ppg) swiped a game-high four steals. He also is second
in conference in steals at 2.11 spg.
NIU coach Rob Judson knows the importance of Triplett, who has led
the Rockets to the second-best record in the MAC West at 8-2 and 14-4
overall.
As NIU held an 18-point lead, Triplett had zero points midway through
the first half.
However, the Ohio native scored 11 points in the final 4:50 of the
first half, to lead his team into the locker room with a 37-35 advantage.
“He got them right back into the game,” said Judson, who
combated Triplett’s scoring barrage with a box-in-one defense to
start the second half.
Triplett would go on to score only six points in the second half, but
the rest of his team was too much for NIU. Helped by Triplett’s
five assists, four Rockets players finished in double digits —
more than any NIU player.
“I was fading too much on my shot at the start,” Triplett
said. “Then I began to shoot it right, and they started falling.”
They fell to the tune of 5-of-7 from three-point range.
But what if Joplin gets a satisfactory performance in Toledo’s
second meeting with NIU on Feb. 11?
© 2004 Northern Star. All Rights Reserved.
