The game started off a bit slow as each team showed patience on their first few offensive possessions. South scored first on a free throw and then followed it up with a three by Weston Bassler to take a 4-0 lead. After going scoreless for almost 3 minutes Sam Lindamood drove into the lane getting a basket and a foul on two consecutive possessions and converting both throws to put TV up 6-4. Both teams would trade baskets and Tri-Village would end the quarter with a 10-9 lead.

In the second period South gained the lead but a Daniel Foreman trey help propel the Patriots back in front on the way to a 20-13 halftime advantage.

In the third period Tri-Village worked the paint scoring off cuts, posting up and running the floor. When Daniel Foreman nailed two free throws at the 4:33 mark Tri-Village held a 12-point lead. The quarter came to an end with South trailing 32-23.

In the final stanza South mounted a comeback when they got back-to-back treys from Wes Rehmert and Cory Bassler, then a steal and lay-up by Steve Summers closed the gap to 34-31. Coach Josh Sagester saw enough and called a timeout to regroup. Following the timeout Sam Lindamood showed senior leadership draining his first long ball of the season to get the PATS back on track.

It would be solid defensive rebounding and getting the ball out and up the floor that would turn the game momentum back over to Tri-Village down the stretch. Foreman, Lindamood and Taylor Brubaker all scored off lay-ups. The Patriots would close out the contest at the free throw line to record a 49-38 victory.

So in response to the question on who would step up offensively, well after the first game of the season that question may be in the answer of “Team Defense”. Tri-Village got the points expected from Lindamood 20 and Foreman 18 with small contributions from the rest of the team. But… as an elated Coach Sagester stated after the game, “WOW! What a total team defensive effort tonight. Not one player scored above single digits for Twin Valley South. We really got after them with our man-to-man defense and we played it so well I really didn’t want to go to anything else.”

I’m really pleased with the way our kids played tonight everyone contributed and played hard. We got scoring we needed with Lindamood and Foreman despite seeing a diamond and one for part of the game. We also got contributions from the rest of the team as well. Derrick Chowning got a big basket at the end of the first half. David Barger had a nice stickback and some big offensive rebounds. Mark Wheeler nailed two big free throws down the stretch. Taylor Brubaker is workhorse and scored a couple baskets. Logan Brubaker played great defense in helping shut down Weston Bassler and our freshman Tyler Greer also gave us some real good minutes. Like I said everyone contributed to this win.

This was a special win against a good program. Coach Tony Augspurger is such a good coach winning 59 games over the last 4 years so this win speaks volumes for our program. More importantly we are 1-0 for the season. One of our goals is to win the conference and this was a big conference victory. But we’ll have to get ready for National Trail tomorrow night and do it all over again.

Scoring by Quarters
Tri-Village ...............10......10......12......17 – 49
Twin Valley South .....9........4......10......15 – 38

Tri-Village
T. Brubaker - 5
D. Foreman - 18
S. Lindamood - 20
D. Chowning - 2
M. Wheeler - 2
D. Barger - 2
L. Brubaker - 0
T. Greer - 0
Totals - 49

Twin Valley South
A. Armstrong - 5
C. Bassler - 5
W. Rehmert - 6
W. Bassler - 7
A. Dawson - 5
S. Summers - 5
J. T. Stone - 2
J. Flynn - 3
Totals - 38