New Madison, Ohio – January 22, 2010
The Battleground was a sea of red filled with a spirited group of students and fans alike… many sporting their favorite pest control devices to swat away the Bees. It would be a fun night for the home team and their fans.
It wasn’t easy as the Patriots felt the sting of the Bees early on… but they kept their cool, endured and when the smoke cleared the Patriots had taken the sting out of the Bees to record an exciting 62-56 overtime win.
Bethel opened with a 5-0 lead and quickly made it 10-2 in the first 3 minutes of play. They continued to build their lead hammering the PATS inside with their front line of Grant Samuel, Mike James and Scott Masin to go up 18-6 with 2:40 to play.
Tri-Village however maintained their composure made some adjustments along with a substitution on defense that slowed down the Bees attack inside.
Over the last two minutes of the quarter T-V went on a 9-0 run which started with a Matt Miller put-back inside. Evan Catron drained a trey with 40 seconds, followed by a Gunckel jumper with 3 seconds in the quarter.
Bethel then tried to hurry with an inbound pass… but Drew Moore eyed it like a safety and made a play on the ball. He stripped it away and all in one motion put the ball up to the basket with one tick left and Tri-Village trailed just 20-17.
“That was a huge turn of events for us and a great basketball play by Drew, commented Coach Sagester. It swung the momentum and served notice that the game was on,” added Sagester.
Gunckel nailed a three-pointer to start the second period and TV was tied 20-20. He then scored nine more points (12 in the period) over the next four minutes to help the Patriots build a 29-25 lead.
Bethel went on a 9-0 run to counter led by their point guard Jon Sutton who hit a trey and then scored on a drive to the hoop. Moore would close out the scoring in the first half... but the PATS trailed 31-34.
What was a fast and furious pace turned out to be a very slow and methodical third frame. Tri-Village held Bethel to just 4 points while scoring 7 of their own on two treys by Moore and a free throw by Miller with the two teams tied up 38-38.
“It was a strategic play on our part, said Tri-Village Coach Josh Sagester on slowing down the pace of play. They were just beating us up inside and we felt like we needed to shorten the game a little with both of our big guys in foul trouble.”
In the fourth stanza both teams showed patience and the game went back on forth with a couple of lead changes until the Bees had opened up a 49-44 lead with 2:55 to play.
Gunckel responded with a three ball to get within two points 49-47. Bethel again went up by five 52-47 with 1:37 to play… but this time Drew Moore hit an open three off a screen and again TV was within two 52-50 with 1:30 to go.
Bethel was unable to shake the PATS leaving the door open with missed free throws. Moore scored a deuce with under a minute to play to get the margin to one 53-52 and then he made a steal and while sprinting to the basket was grabbed from behind. The Intentional foul resulted in two Moore free throws and TV led 54-53.
A turnover by T-V gave Bethel one more opportunity and with 5 seconds to play they fouled James who hit just 1-of-2 free throws and the two teams were knotted at 54 each and the game went to overtime.
Moore hit 2 free throws to give T-V a lead in the OT period. Evan Barger then picked up his 5th foul and Scott Masin hit 1-of-2 throws. On the next possession it was Dan Yates who picked up his 5th foul that sent Gunckel to the line. Cody hit on two free throws and TV led 58-55.
A few minutes later Gunckel was at the line again to make it 60-56 and finally Colby Morris finished it up with two more throws to seal the 62-56 Patriot win.
“What a game, said a smiling Josh Sagester. We got down early but our kids were relentless they just kept playing basketball. Everyone stepped up and we had a number of kids make big plays that help us win this game tonight,” added Sagester.
“They (Bethel) are a tremendous team with some horses inside… but we battled and played some of our best basketball tonight as a team."
"Cody Gunckel and Drew Moore were tremendous offensively tonight, but I was equally impressed with their other contributions. Cody pulled down 8 rebounds and Drew played great defense. He made a few key steals and dove on the floor to take a ball away from their big man late in the game. Those plays were about winning and it was a tremendous effort.”
“Bethel was much bigger and stronger inside but we rebounded the ball well." Colby Morris who was undersized pulled down 9 rebounds and Matt Miller grabbed 10 boards. "Evan Catron dished out 4 assist and played steady on defense and Evan Barger gave us good inside defense off the bench so this was a good effort by all our kids tonight."
“This win puts us in control of our own destiny in the league and we can’t ask for more than that, it’s up to us to finish it,” concluded Sagester.
Cody Gunckel scored 29 points with Drew Moore adding 24 in the win. T-V is now 9-5 overall and 7-1 in the conference tied with Bethel in second place. Franklin Monroe is the lone undefeated team left and has yet to play Bethel, Covington or Tri-Village.
The Junior Varsity won tonight by the score of 48-40 and has a record of 9-5 and 6-2 in the conference. Aaron Cassel scored 15 and Kyle Pipenger added 11 points in the win.
Scoring by Quarters:
Tri-Village…17…14…07…16….08 – 62
Bethel………20…14…04…16….02 – 56
Individual Scoring:
Tri-Village
Moore 4-3-6/8 – 24
Catron 1-0-0/0 – 3
Miller 0-1-2/4 – 4
Gunckel 4-5-7/8 – 29
Morris 0-0-2/2 – 2
Totals 9-9-17/22 – 62
Bethel
Yates 0-1-2/4 – 4
Sutton 3-3-1/2 – 16
Masin 0-4-7/13 – 15
Samuel 0-7-1/6 – 15
James 0-2-2/2 – 6
Totals 3-17-13/27 – 56
Three Pointers
Tri-Village – 9 (Gunckel 4, Moore 4, Catron 1)
Bethel – 3 (Sutton 3)
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