New Madison – December 10, 2004
The undefeated and reigning Cross County Conference Ansonia Tigers came calling tonight. If they thought showing up was all that was needed to win they were wrong. The underdog Patriots were up for the challenge and had their eyes on upsetting the mighty Tigers. They fell short on the scoreboard but not in heart.
Corey Jay scored first for the Patriots but Kevin Harrod followed that up with a three and at 7:01 the Tigers had the lead 3-2. Over the next 4:30 the Patriots struggled handling the basketball and an opportunistic Tiger team took advantage extending their lead to 9-2. Tri-Village settled down and decided to pound the ball inside to their big man Corey Jay who would answer with an old fashioned 3 and the Patriots cut into the lead trailing 11-9 at the end of one.
Ansonia had no answer for Jay who would dominate the Tigers in the second quarter scoring twelve points including 4 straight trips down the floor. At the same time they put the squeeze on the Tigers big man counterpart Adam Barga by taking away the middle of the lane and limiting his touches. The Tigers were forced to shoot from the outside and went ice cold scoring just three points and the Patriot’s sprung ahead 23-14 to end the first half.
If anyone was having dejavu it’s understandable as Tri-Village opened the year at home against National Trail in similar fashion holding a 24-14 lead at halftime. The question on everyone’s mind, can this team pull it together and play a strong second half to match the first. The stunned Ansonia crowd could only hope that the answer was no.
In the third quarter the two teams battled back and forth. Sam Lindamood and Daniel Foreman found success in driving to the basket as the Tigers were doubling and tripling up on Jay. Meanwhile for Ansonia Jack Steinke knocked down a couple of jumpers creating some breathing room in the middle for Barga who went to work scoring 8 in the quarter while cutting the Tri-Village lead down to 32-28.
The raucous and rowdy crowd for Ansonia came to life in the fourth quarter. Cameron Quinn got the scoring underway with two free throws. The Tigers would strike back quickly as Harrod would drain his second trey of the night. Two more Patriot free throws by Jay followed by a Steinke lay-in and the Tigers weren’t going away. With Ansonia’s defense focusing on Jay the opportunity for Quinn opened up and he would drop in two baskets but… a big 3 by Steinke and a lay-up by Barga at 4:15 and the score was 40-38.
Daniel Foreman stepped forward and drove the lane for a lay-up but… Brad McEldowney quite all game long sank a big three and the margin was now only one 42-41 at 1:56. Foreman was then fouled sinking one of two free throws and the Patriots were up 43-41. After a strong defensive stop the Patriots found themselves with the basketball with 26 seconds left and again Foreman was fouled. The unsuccessful attempt bounded off but both Quinn & Jay had stickback opportunities just rimming out and with 10.2 seconds left the Tigers called timeout.
Ansonia dumped the ball inside to Barga who found a wide-open Fosnaugh on the opposite block for two tying the game with 1.5 seconds left to play. A last second desperation heave by Lindamood was short and it was on to 4 minutes of overtime.
The Tigers got a free throw by Barga taking their second lead of the night 44-43 followed by Harrods third trey of the night. Jay sank two free throws at 2:03 and it was 47-45. The Patriots playing strong defense forced Barga into a loose ball but… while falling out of bounds he was able to tap it inbounds finding it’s way into the hands of Steinke for an easy deuce. Foreman was fouled this time netting both throws pulling within two 49-47 at 1:35. But again Ansonia would find an open man for two and one more Steinke free throw was all the scoring needed giving the Tigers a hard fought win 52-47.
On this night it looked like the Patriots were the better team and with a few less turnovers, a made free throw or the right bounce of the ball and the Patriots could taste victory. One thing is for sure the team played hard and left their heart out on the floor.
“I can’t fault our kids effort they give us great effort every night. These boys played hard and if they continue to bring this type of effort to the floor we are going to win games,” said Coach Sagester. “Our three losses have been at the hands of some good basketball teams. This is a pretty darn good basketball team and our time will come.”
Corey Jay led the Patriots with a monster game scoring 22 points and pulling down 15 rebounds.
Tri-Village falls to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the conference. They will be traveling to take on rival Franklin Monroe next Friday in another league show down.
In Junior Varsity action the Patriots competed strong and tied the score in the 4th period but again fell short.
Box Score
Tri-Village Patriots
# 4 – Pipenger – 0
# 5 – Fisherback – 2
#15 – Foreman – 9
#32 – Snyder – 2
#33 – Quinn – 6
#35 – Lindamood – 6
#50 – Jay - 22
Totals - 47
Ansonia Tigers
#5 – Fosnaugh – 6
#10 – Runner – 2
#12 – Harrod – 11
#20 – Steinke –15
#42 – McEldowney – 5
#50 – Barga– 13
Totals - 52
Score by quarters:
Tri-Village – 9 – 23 – 32 – 47
Ansonia – 11 – 14 – 28 – 52
