December 5, 2003 - New Madison

For the Tri-Village Boys Basketball Team the 2003-04 season opening game was dejavu all over again. Just like last year they were handed a defeat by Arcanum. This was a tale of two games, the first half and the second half. Fans will surely be wanting to see more of the team who played in the second half as opposed to the first.

The Arcanum Trojans started the game very intense and fired up. This is a team that will play you hard for an entire game. They are a mere reflections of their fiery coach who seemed to be up the entire game. Meanwhile the Patriots came out a little shell shocked and lacked intensity. While Arcanum was fighting through picks and gathering every loose ball, the Patriots were going through the motions. The result was a Trojan first quarter lead of 16-12. All though the Patriots only trailed by 4 it would soon go from bad to worse.

In the second quarter the Patriots couldn't buy a basket and weren't getting the looks and when they did there were few second shots. Then with a few minutes gone in the 2nd quarter Sophomore Sam Lindamood went down with an ankle injury. This was concerning as he was just recovering from a previous injury to the other ankle. When play resumed it seemed like the Trojans took their game to another level while the Patriots were looking for somebody, anybody to get them out of their funk. Junior big man Corey Jay picked up his 3rd foul and had to take a seat for most of the quarter. And, when you thought it couldn't get worse the Trojans stole the ball and made a layup only to be fouled and to add injury to insult the Patriots were slapped with a technical foul. This would turn out to be a 5 point swing and Arcanum marched to a 41-19 lead into the locker room at half time.

"We were just out of sync" commented Coach Lee Falknor, "we didn't play with any intensity." "I told our kids to come out in the second half and lets see if we can't get their lead down to 10 points by the 4th quarter and then go from there."

Well the Patriot Team that showed up in the second half was not the same, bringing a tough hard nosed man to man defense to the floor shutting down the Arcanum offense. On the offensive side the cuts were sharper the execution more precise and finally the ball was going through the hoop. The Patriots would climb back into the game by winning the quarter scoring 25 points, compared to Arcanum 7 points and only down three 47 - 44 going into the final stanza. The Patriots received some timely shooting from Junior Josh Fisherback who knocked down a couple of 3's and two field goals.

The Patriots would exceed the coaches goal and now were within 3 points not 10 to start the 4th quarter. Their was excitement in the air, both Arcanum and Tri-Village, the war was on a new ball game. Tri-Village would eventually take the lead and it see sawed back and forth and finally Arcanum took a 59-58 lead off a stickback on a missed free throw. TV had a few a chances to score and take the victory with about 6 seconds left Corey Jay took a jumper of the baseline from 10' and then an offenisve rebound by Bailey but it too fell short leaving the Patriots with another opening game loss.

"Tonight was just a case of us starting out too slow, if this team works hard, believes in our system, executes and learns to play well together, were going to surprise some teams and win some games," said Coach Falknor. It should be noted that this team has been without their head coach for 3 weeks. Which makes the challenge difficult as mentioned in the season preview. That is to blend a transfer with two experienced returning players and inexperienced young players and find a leader to step up and bring out the intensity needed to compete for an entire game. Those are the challenges but if the second half is an indication of what can be then it could be an exciting season. GO PATRIOTS!

The Patriots return to action tomorrow night at National Trail. The Jr Varsity also fell to Arcanum by the score of 50-32.

Box Score
Tri-Village
#5 - Fisherback - 21
#15 - Foreman - 2
#21 - Ary - 10
#23 - Bailey - 8
#24 - Burns - 10
#50 - Jay - 7
Totals - 58

Arcanum
#10 - Via - 27
#12 - Zach Cates - 3
#14 - Ty Cates - 4
#20 - Rench - 2
#34 - Eilerman - 5
#44 - Schwierterman - 7
#50 - Beam - 10
Totals - 59