Wright State – February 21, 2005
Tri-Village and Xenia Christian squared off tonight at the Nutter Center both playing a second game in as many nights. XC the #4 seed with a record of 16-5 would prove to be a challenge for the Patriots with their athleticism and ability to run the floor. On this night the Patriots took care of the basketball while slowing down Xenia Christian’s running game. XC was focused on shutting down Corey Jay but Sam Lindamood, Ryan Snyder and Josh Fisherback turned in solid performances as TV pulled away in the second half for a 53-44 win giving them the opportunity to play for a Sectional Championship on Thursday 2/23/05 at 8pm against Cedarville at the Nutter Center.

The Patriots as they have done all year long jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead behind Jay and Lindamood. Xenia Christian adjusted their defense packing it in to stop the inside play and went on a short run of their own closing the gap to 9-7. Another Lindamood stickback would give the PATS an 11-7 lead after one quarter of play.

In the second period the Ambassadors would turn up the defensive pressure with a full court press and ball hawking man pressure in the half court set. TV would commit a couple of turnovers early with one leading to a Harklroad jam. XC battled, trading baskets, including a couple of treys to counter two Josh Fisherback treys and with 30 seconds to play held a 23-20 lead. Lindamood would be fouled with 16 seconds left in the half for a 1 and 1 nailing both to pull the Patriots within one, trailing at the half 23-22.

The Patriots shot a dismal 28% in the first half compared to 45% for the Ambassadors but made 8-9 free throws to keep it close. “We were kind of stagnant on offense and that is a credit to Xenia’s coaches as they scouted us pretty well,” said Coach Sagester.

Lindamood opened the second half with a trey to get the PATS off and running. One more tie and two lead changes, the final one off a Fisherback trey at 5:24 gave them a 28-27 advantage and a lead they wouldn’t relinquish for the remainder of the game. Ryan Snyder got a couple of scores inside including a three the hard way and with 42 seconds left in the third TV led 33-27. Lindamood just as he opened the quarter ended with a trey to help extend the lead to 36-29.

In the final stanza XC would turn up the heat once again on defense while trying to get the game up-tempo behind Dan McNeely who would take the ball hard at the Patriots every time he touched the ball. Tri-Village weathered the storm committing 4 turnovers down the stretch. “12 turnovers for the game is a pretty nice job by our guards, when we value the basketball and take care of it we have a good shot a winning games,” said Coach Sagester. The Patriots would get balanced scoring from everyone in the final period including 6-8 free throws to preserve the win 53-44.

When asked about Xenia Christian shutting down Corey Jay, Coach Sagester had this to say “If you would have told me Corey would only have eight points tonight, I probably would have told you we wouldn’t be playing on Thursday. He didn’t have a great game offensively, but he took up some space, defended well disrupting both Harklroad and Robbins as they were held to single digit scoring.”

“To our kids credit, some other guys stepped up and that is what tournament time as about, getting as many contributions as you can. Ryan gave us a big game tonight 13 points, 7 rebounds that is one heck of night. Sam stepped up and made big shots and Josh Fisherback also stepped up and hit some too.”

I’m proud of the kids and I’m just happy for them, they worked their tails off and improved week by week. I told them in that overtime loss to Ansonia, it’s not where we are in November but where we are in February that matters. Fortunately we’ll have the opportunity to play again on Thursday,” said an elated Coach Sagester.

For the game Sam Lindamood pulled down 9 rebounds and led the way with18 points sharing game high honors with McNeely of Xenia. Ryan Snyder had 13 and Josh Fisherback added 10 points. Corey Jay also pulled down 9 rebounds and Daniel Foreman dished out 5 assists. The Patriots shot just 39% from the floor but made 15-21 free throws to just 4-9 for XC. They also out rebounded XC 33-24.

Scoring:
Box Score
Tri-Village – 3 Pointers 6(4 Lindamood, 2 Fisherback)
Pipenger – 0
Fisherback – 10
Foreman – 4
Snyder – 13
Quinn – 0
Lindamood – 18
Jay – 8
Totals – 53

Xenia Christian – 3 Pointers 6(3 McNeely, 2 Gaynier, Becker)
McNeely – 18
Robbins – 7
Harkleroad – 8
Taylor – 0
Gaynier – 6
Becker – 3
Saltar – 0
Cooper – 2
Eldridge – 0
Totals – 44

Tri-Village………11…22…36…53
Xenia Christian…7…23…29…44