Fort Recovery – December 4, 2004
Playing on the road two nights in a row is difficult especially when the confines are at the For Tri-Village found it rough going at Fort Recovery tonight ending up on the wrong end of calls most of the night and eventually running out of steam as the Indians picked up a win 58-44.

Things started off positive as the Patriots went up 4-0 to start the game but… Fort Recovery would run off 14 unanswered points. An old-fashioned three-point play by Cameron Quinn closed the quarter, but down 14-7. The big momentum shift was a second foul assessed on Corey Jay at 6:23 trailing just 7-4 and he would take a seat for the remainder of the half.

In the second period the Patriots battled back. “With Jay on the bench I thought we have to keep it close.” “We stuck our nose in there and played hard to get back into the game,” commented coach Josh Sagester. Sam Lindamood led the comeback scoring eights points including two at the buzzer. With 3.2 seconds left on the clock the ball was put into play, Lindamood drove the length of the floor and threw up a running one hander that found the back of the glass and fell through pulling the Patriots within three, 23-20 at the half.

After working so hard to get back in the game Tri-Village came out flat in the second half allowing the Indians to run off seven points and just like that the Patriots were behind 30-20. With Jay back in the game the Patriots tried to feed the post to get the inside game going. The Fort doubled and triple teamed the post when Jay was in the game finding the inside rough going. Tri-Village could get no closer and trailed after three 41-29.

In the final period Tri-Village would pull to with eight points after Josh Fisherback sank a three followed by a Quinn stickback and the score was 46-38. But on this night the arrow that sealed the deal was the free throw shooting of the Indians. The Patriots would get no closer as each Indian who toed the line was perfect going 13-13 ensuring their victory 58-44. The Indians converted 18-21 free throws for the game compared to just 5-10 for Tri-Village. Add 15 TV turnovers versus 5 for the Indians and with a 3 –1 ratio of turnovers it will be difficult to win no matter where the game is played.

“We battled back but physically and mentally we just weren’t able to finish out the game after a grueling match with Arcanum last night.” “We can’t dwell on this loss we have to get ready and prepare for next Friday’s conference game,” said coach Sagester.

For the game the Patriots shot 43.5% (10-23), 50% (4-8) from behind the arch and held a slight edge in rebounding 23-20. Sam Lindamood led in scoring with 16 points and Josh Fisherback recorded 7 rebounds.

Tri-Village falls to 1-2 overall 1-0 in the conference and will be taking on a powerful foe and league favorite Ansonia Tigers next Friday with action starting at 6:30pm.

In Junior Varsity action the Patriots took a lead late in the 4th period on a David Barger free throw 32-31 but eventually fell 45-35. Damon Cooley led the way with 11 points.

Box Score
Tri-Village Patriots
# 4 – Pipenger – 0
# 5 – Fisherback – 7
#15 – Foreman – 6
#32 – Snyder – 0
#33 – Quinn – 9
#35 – Lindamood – 16
#50 – Jay - 6
Totals - 44

Fort Recovery Indians
#12 – Faller – 4
#14 – Wuebker – 0
#23 – Kahlig – 15
#30 – D. Tobe –18
#40 – C. Tobe – 5
#41 – VanSkyock – 16
Totals - 58 

Score by quarters:
Tri-Village – 7 – 20 – 29 – 44
Fort Recovery – 14 – 23 – 41 – 58