Tri-Village put their undefeated conference record on the line tonight on the Blackhawk’s home court. No matter the records whenever these two teams get together you know it’s going to be a battle and tonight would be no exception.

M-V got on the board first when Ryan Dickey canned a jumper from the corner. T-V then scored 6 straight points off a Taylor Brubaker bucket inside, two David Barger free throws and a Sam Lindamood jumper to take a 6-2 lead at 5:03.

Levi Wicker netted one free throw and Lindamood another jumper to make it 8-3. Senior Josh Setser landed a soft hook for two before two straight treys; one by Logan Brubaker and another by Lindamood made the score 14-5. Another Dickey bucket ended the quarter with M-V trailing 14-7.

The Blackhawk’s made a strong statement to open the second period scoring 8 unanswered points; a jumper by Wicker and two three’s one by Dusty Lyons and another by Jason Claywell to regain the lead 15-13.

Lindamood put in a trey of his own followed by a David Barger lay-in at 4:48 and T-V led again 19-15. Daniel Foreman connected on 1-of-2 free throws and Lindamood drilled another long range shot and T-V lead 23-15.

The Blackhawk’s staged another run of their own with 6 points to close out the half trailing by just two 23-21.

To start the second half Mississinawa got a lay-up from Gelhaus inside and the game was knotted 23-23. T-V scored the next 6 points; two by Barger and four by Logan Brubaker and at 5:44 led 29-24.

M-V closed the gap again and when Claywell sank his 3rd free throw out of 4 on two straight trips to the line they trailed by just one 33-32 with 1:47 to play in the third.

Mark Wheeler would then give T-V a lift with three straight baskets but the Blackhawks countered with a jumper at the buzzer from Kurt Moneysmith and again M-V was in striking distance down 39-36.

In the final stanza M-V battled back and tied the game at 39-39 with a Dickey jumper from the baseline.

The remainder of the quarter became a free throw shooting contest with Tri-Village going to the line 16 times and Mississinawa 8 times. T-V won the battle going 11-for-16 and M-V just 5-for-8. With 1:08 left to play and the Blackhawks trailing by just 3 points 44-41 Sam Lindamood shook free of two defenders on the baseline and dunked it over Setser charging up the Patriots and they went on to close out the game with a 52-47 win.

After the game I asked Coach Sagester what he thought about the Patriots effort. “I think our kids came of age tonight. This was a gutsy performance; they (M-V) are a good basketball team despite their record and fought hard tonight. But I thought our kids dug deep and found a way to win.”

“We got great contributions from all our kids tonight, said Sagester. Logan was solid out front, Taylor who plays undersized underneath battled hard, David gave us a great game inside holding their big man to 4 points while grabbing over 10 rebounds. When Daniel got in foul trouble Mark stepped in to give us good minutes especially in the second half. Sam faced a number of double teams but he came up big and that play in the 4th quarter really elevated our team.”

“It’s a good win for us tonight and, now we can take our 7-0 conference record and put it on the line next week when we travel to Covington. When the season started I think everyone knew the conference title was through Covington. They are talented and deep but we are going to give it our best shot.”

Scoring by Quarters
Tri-Village .............14....…9..…16......13 – 52
National Trail …......7......14......15......11 – 47

Tri-Village
T. Brubaker - 2
D. Foreman - 6
S. Lindamood - 20
D. Chowning - 0
M. Wheeler - 11
D. Barger - 6
L. Brubaker - 7
T. Greer - 0
Totals - 52

Miss Valley
D. Lyons - 3
W. Gelhaus - 7
R. Dickey - 10
K. Linder - 6
L. Wicker - 6
K. Moneysmith - 2
J. Setser - 4
J. Claywell - 9
Totals - 47