Coming off a stretch of 4 wins in 7 days, two over highly ranked Division III teams in Southwest Ohio, it's safe to say coach Josh Sagester was a little concerned about how his team would come out and play Tuesday night at Ansonia.
Those concerns were put to rest after the Patriots jumped all over the Ansonia Tigers, taking a 23-2 first quarter lead.
The Patriots were able to do most of the damage on the inside with Tyler Cook scoring 7, Evan Barger 6 and Kyle Pipenger 4 in the first quarter.
“We came to play tonight, said Josh Sagester. It started with Evan Barger who played with high energy and we fed off that, he set the tone, that’s what senior leaders do.”
Barger finished the game with a double – double 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Ansonia was able to make the second frame a little more competitive with Seth Keller and Zach Brown each scoring 4 points…but the Patriots won the frame 15-11 and led at the half 38-13.
“We knew going in we had a size advantage and talked about the guards being patient on offense because we wanted to pound the ball inside early,” said Josh Sagester
The strategy appeared to work as Shade Brubaker started to light it up from the perimeter scoring four 3-pointers with one being the hard way.
“Our defense was really good and Shade Brubaker did a good job of pressuring up front and getting into the passing lanes which resulted in a steal for an and one. That got him going and he really shot it well from the outside after that,” commented Sagester.
Brubaker would end the game with a game high18 points on five treys and one old fashioned three.
Tri-Village’s Matt Werner connecting on a triple to start the second half and the offensive fireworks continued for the Patriots, scoring 21 in the 3rd period to lead 57-23.
Barger scored 8 and Pipenger 6 in the period, with Taylor Young for Ansonia scoring 4.
With both teams freely substituting in the final stanza the offensive production dropped slightly…but again the edge went to the Patriots 11-7, and the game by the score of 68-30.
“We are a little banged up and tired from the stretch of games we’ve played and it was nice to see these guys out their having fun tonight,” said Sagester.
“Our guards played really well tonight showing patience and maturity, they let the game come to them instead of forcing things.
Sagester continued, “Kyle Pipenger wasn’t worried about scoring his 22 point average and was glad to see our bigs get touches and finish.”
“Matt Werner also did a great job distributing and finding guys and had a real nice dish to Evan Barger in the first half.”
“Now we have 10 days off and time to rest up and prepare for our final regular season stretch,” concluded Sagester.
The Patriots had 4 players in double figure scoring led by Shade Brubaker with 18, Evan Barger 14, Tyler Cook & Kyle Pipenger each with 12.
The Junior Varsity ran their record to 17-0 overall and 10-0 in the conference.
The two teams will be back in action on Friday February 10th at home taking on the Newton Indians.
Tri-Village (14-3, 9-1)
E. Barger 0-7-0/0 – 14
S. Brubaker 5-1-1/1 – 18
Ryian Burson 0-1-0/0 – 2
T. Cook 0-5-2/3 – 12
M. Werner 1-0-1/2 – 3
K. Pipenger 0-5-2/4 – 12
A. Willcox 0-3-0/0 – 6
Totals 6-22-6/9 – 68
Ansonia (4-10, 3-6)
A. Bergman 0-2-0/0 – 4
Z. Brown 0-3-3/4 – 9
D. Kaiser 1-0-0/0 – 3
S. Keller 1-2-0/0 – 7
J. Wright 0-1-0/0 – 2
T. Young 0-2-1/2 – 5
Totals 2-10-4/6 – 30
It was Pipenger row as they lined up to support their favorite Patriot.
Shade Brubaker scored this and one to go along with 5 treys from behind the arch for a total of 18 points on the night.
