Pitsburg – December 17, 2004
When a team starts the game with very little intensity and no movement defense chances are you won’t win many games. Tri-Village came out flat and tried to play catch-up all night but… Franklin Monroe playing good team basketball didn’t let them back in the game. The Jets guard play was good at penetrating and moving the ball around finding the passing lanes to open players for easy baskets.

Franklin Monroe guard Zach Long got the home team on the board first with a trey. Sam Lindamood dropped in two free throws at 5:41 to get Tri-Village on the board 5-2. Then Micah Fisher would score two inside for FM but… Cameron Quinn scored two off a fast break followed by a Corey Jay basket inside at 3:35 and the game was tied 7-7. Josh Fisherback drained a long one at 1:48 giving Tri-Village their first and only lead of the game 10-9. With 1:17 to play in the first Jay picked up his second foul sending Fisher to the line who converted one of two tying the game again at 10-10. Then with 3 second go Grant Shellabarger sank two more free throws and the Jets led 12-10.

To start the second period Daniel Foreman would get an assist to Quinn for two at 6:54 tying the game again 12-12. With Jay out of the lineup due to picking up his second foul toward the end of the first period the Jets would go on an eleven point run over the next 5 minutes. If not for the hot hand of Fisherback over the last 1:43 seconds the Jets could have blown the game wide open. Two consecutive threes including one from about 23’ then a drive to the hoop for two helped pull the Pats to 28-20 at the half.

Consider in this early season for two games Tri-Village has held a sizable lead at halftime but… lost those leads in the second half playing not to lose instead of to win. It was interesting to see how this team would respond after being down by eight points and… now having the opportunity of playing to win instead of just trying to maintain a lead. Would they come out fired up and play aggressive or would they continue uninspired.

The third quarter saw Franklin Monroe continue to build on their lead going up 36-22 when Long banked in a trey with 5:00 to play. TV would get Jay involved again and as he would score 6 of the next 8 points pulling the PATS to within a singled digit lead of 39-30 after three quarters of play.

To start the final stanza Jay would quickly pick up his 4th foul resembling much of what the 4th quarter would look like as the Patriots were forced to foul to try and get back in the game. Sam Lindamood quite for most of the game would score 10 of his game high 18 points in the last 1:48 to play. It wasn’t enough though as Franklin Monroe guard Zach Long came up big connecting on 9-10 free throws during the same stretch and the Jets held on to win 62-52.

This Patriot team has potential to play with any team on their schedule but in order to win they will need to commit to playing hard for an entire game and not take any opponents lightly. They will need to dig deep to find a way to play inspired basketball with a passion for winning. Good Luck and Go Patriots!

Tri-Village is on the road again tomorrow as they will travel to face last year’s Regional Runner-up the Fairlawn Jets that bring back the nucleus of that team this year.

Box Score
Tri-Village Patriots
# 4 – Pipenger – 0
# 5 – Fisherback – 11
#15 – Foreman – 0
#32 – Snyder – 2
#33 – Quinn – 9
#35 – Lindamood – 18
#50 – Jay - 12
Totals – 52

Franklin Monroe Jets
# 3 – Cera – 3
#11 – Halderman – 3
#20 – Shellabarger –15
#23 – Long – 19
#24 – Hunt – 7
#32 – Fisher – 13
#45 – Hall – 2
Totals – 62

Score by quarters:
Tri-Village – 10 – 20 – 30 – 52
Franklin Monroe – 12 – 28 – 39 - 62