January 19, 2004 - New Madison

Tri-Village was looking forward to taking on the state ranked Franklin Monroe Jets at home with both teams boasting perfect 6-0 conference records and vying to remain that way. It was a game that early on looked like it was going to be full of drama but a 6 minute collapse on defense by the Patriots in the second quarter was the difference... and there would be no drama down the stretch giving FM an easy victory 63 - 45.

In the first quarter both teams would find their offenses, scoring easily. Franklin Monroe was paced by Lindsey Davenport nailing three treys and drawing out the Tri-Village matchup zone to defend the arc. The Patriots used a complete team offense as all five starters scored in the period with Heather Deaton and Olivia Frazier each scoring 4 trailing 15-14.

In the second quarter Tri-Village got a quick basket by Sara Burkhardt garnering their first lead of the game 16-15. Mattie Burns followed that up with a trey of her own and the lead went to 19-16. But it would come and go as quick as they got it never to be close again. Franklin Monroe scored 15 unanswered points going up 31-19 before Tri-Village's Frazier took a long pass down court off a turnover for a layup. But the Jets soared again scoring 14 more points while the Patriots failed to score the rest of the first half... and FM took a 45-21 halftime lead into the locker room.

In the third quarter Tri-Village changed their matchup zone to a man to man defense to try and pick up their intensity. "We probably should have started man to man as it has been our bread and butter defense over the years and switched up more often during the game", said coach Jim Maples. "I told the girls lets try to get back into the game and see if we can get within ten points by the end of the third quarter". The intensity was obivious as TV came out firing with Mattie Burns scoring a three, then a two pointer... and with the man defense frustrating Franklin Monroe they called a timeout with 5:57 to play. After the timeout Moore and Deaton both scored pulling Tri-Village within 15 after trailing by 24 to start the quarter. Leading 49-35 and 2:02 to play FM called a timeout to regroup... and Coach Maple's team looked like they were executing the plan to get within ten points. But Oswalt broke free for a basket and then the real momentum breaker was a three pointer with 8 seconds to play by Vance.

In the final stanza the Jets controlled the play and Tri-Village never really challenged as they finished out the game winning 63-45.

"People might look at this game and say well take away six minutes in the second quarter and you may have won the game, said Maples. But you can't look at it that way, you can't have a stretch like that and expect to win. That may be the worst 6 minutes of defense seen, combined with our turnovers... and you won't win big games. On the positive side our kids fought hard trying to get back in the game... but the Vance three broke our backs".

Tri-Village falls one game behind leaders Covington and Franklin Monroe in the conference at 6-1. "Hey we aren't out of it yet. Covington and Franklin Monroe has to play each other yet and we have to Covington, anything can happen", stated Maples.

The Lady Patriots will play this Thursday January 22nd at Bradford.

Go Lady Patriots!

Box Scores
Tri-Village
#10 - Burns - 13
#24 - Moore - 6
#32 - Deaton - 10
#35 - Burkhardt - 2
#42 - Skidmore - 2
#44 - Frazier - 10
#50 - Coomer - 2
TOTALS - 45

Franklin Monroe
Davenport - 14
Oswalt - 15
Halderman - 7
Vance - 8
Kakatolis - 17
Post - 2
TOTALS - 63