Drew Moore tallied 17 points and and nailed two big free throws with 11 seconds left to play the final margin of victory 57-55 over the Jets.
12/29/08
Pitsburg, Ohio
Tri-Village entered the 2008 Jet Holiday Tournament as the reigning champs looking to defend their 2007 Title. Early on the Patriots looked like champions as they grabbed an early lead, and for 3 1/2 quarters gradually built up a comfortable 50-35 lead.
Championships aren’t won easily and Franklin Monroe wasn’t about to pack their bags and leave. In fact they mounted a furious comeback in the final 4 minutes of the game taking it down to the wire and if not for an errant 3 point shot at the buzzer they would have pulled off a dramatic come from behind win.
But the Patriots showed their mettle and survived the comeback for a 57-55 victory to advance to the championship game and will play the Versailles Tigers tomorrow night, a 55-51 winner in the earlier game.
“I told our kids it wasn’t the way I wanted us to finish, especially after we dominated for the first 28 minutes of the game,” said Coach Josh Sagester.
“But it’s a win… and we are playing for another title tomorrow night, that is all that matters right now.”
Tri-Village built up a 9-3 lead in the first 4 minutes of the game but two consecutive three-pointers by Ty French and Lane Lucas would tie the game at 11-11 with a minute to play. Drew Moore would close out the first period with a trey of his own and TV led 14-11.
In the second quarter Tyler Greer would assert his presence with 5 straight points to give the Pats a 19-11 lead. The two teams traded baskets until Heath West dropped in a trey, followed by a Troy Pearson reverse lay-up and Tri-Village enjoyed a 10-point lead.
The Jets however got another trey by Lucas and a couple of Free Throws by Nathan Feitshans to cut the margin trailing 30-23 at the half.
In the third frame TV got production in the paint both from Troy Pearson and Matt Miller each scoring 4 points a piece to match the Jets inside game from Austin Pressley and Heath Kaufman.
The Patriots closed out the frame with buckets by Greer and Moore as they built up a 46-34 lead.
In the final stanza Tri-Village would extend their lead to 15 points 50-35 with 4:30 left to play, then the wheels fell off of the cart. Heath West picked up his 5th foul on an Austin Presley fielder that turned into an old fashioned three-point play. Presley duplicated the effort on the next possession… and followed that up with another bucket inside for 8 straight points. The Jets had cut the lead down to 52-43 with 2:55 to play.
Franklin Monroe then inserted into the line-up sophomore reserve player Tyler Schrodi, who would connect on two straight long range shots from behind the arch and all of sudden the score was 52-49 with 1:25 to play. A Greer free throw helped stop the bleeding slightly… but Ty French answered quickly with a pull up 10’ jumper to get within two points 53-51 with 1:10 to play.
The Jets then fouled Cody Gunckel who would provide some relief knocking down both throws to make it 55-51. However Schrodi struck one more time this time from about 35 feet and the Jets trailed 55-54.
Drew Moore calmly sank two throws of his own to go up 57-54 with 15 seconds to go. The Patriots were then called for a foul breaking through a screen to try and deny Schrodi another three-point attempt. Van Spitler connected on one of two throws to make it 57-55 with 11 seconds to play.
The Jets then fouled TV and two straight misses set-up a dramatic last second opportunity for Franklin Monroe as they got the ball in the hot hand of Schrodi one more time. He was unable to hit the game winner as the ball bounced off the rim and the buzzer sounded just in time to the relief of the many stunned Tri-Village fans who saw a big lead evaporate over the last 4 minutes of the game.
“That was a typical Franklin Monroe effort,” said Josh Sagester. “You know they aren’t going to quit and for whatever reason we stopped playing basketball there at the end. We were playing not to lose instead of winning and tensed up. We missed free throws, missed lay-ups and had a few uncharacteristic turnovers. When Heath fouled out we lost a good defensive guard and we weren’t about to locate the Schrodi kid who got the hot hand at the end of the game… but we survived and we are moving on to play Versailles tomorrow night,” added Sagester.
“We will have to see how much gas we have left in our tanks as we logged a lot of minutes for our main kids tonight. That is about the 5th time this year we have seen a triangle and two on Tyler Greer and Drew Moore, that extra attention takes a lot out of them. We will have to be physical and defend well and locate Nieport tomorrow night, as he goes so does Versailles,” concluded Sagester.
The win for Tri-Village raises their record to 6-2 overall. They will tip off tomorrow evening around 8pm.
In the JV contest the Patriots lost a heartbreaker in double OT 37-34 to Franklin Monroe and will have a rematch with Arcanum in the consolation game tomorrow afternoon with tip-off at 1pm.
Score by Quarters:
Tri-Village……….14….16….16….11 – 57
Franklin Monroe..11….12….11….21 – 55
Tri-Village (6-2 record)
Heath West 2-1-4/4 – 12
Drew Moore 1-4-6/7 – 17
Tyler Greer 0-4-2/7 – 10
Matt Miller 0-3-2/4 – 8
Troy Pearson 0-3-0/0 - 6
Cody Gunckel 0-1-2/2 – 4
Totals: 3-16-16/26 – 57
Franklin Monroe (4-2 record)
Lane Lucas 2-1-2/2 – 10
Nathan Feitshans 0-0-3/4 – 3
Tyler Schrodi 3-0-0/0 – 9
Heath Kaufman 0-1-4/6 – 6
Ty French 1-1-0/0 – 5
Van Spitler 0-2-1/2 – 5
Austin Pressley 0-6-5/8 – 17
Totals: 6-11-15/22 – 55
Matt Miller glides in for two of his 8 points on the night in a win over FM.
Troy Pearson played a solid game and battled the boards against the bigs of FM, Pearson scored 6 points on the night.
