Bob Moore – Editor, cccbasketball.com
Pitsburg - The Franklin Monroe Jets and the Tri-Village Patriots got off to slow starts offensively on this Saturday morning. Attribute the slow start to the man defense that both teams played in the first half and maybe not having enough caffeine for breakfast. Abbey Davenport would start the game with a three pointer and neither team would see another point scored until FM’s Mara Howell nets her first bucket at the 4:25 mark. It would be another minute and a half before Elaina Kakatolis would make her first basket and FM is up 7 – 0 at the 3 minute mark. With the start that Tri-Village was off to, little did everyone know that if FM didn’t score the rest of the half, the worst they would be is tied at 7’s! TV’s only bucket would come from Heather Deaton with an old fashion 3-point play with 2:46 left in the quarter. TV could get no shots to roll in and what other shots they did take a FM player was applying the D. TV had no real answer for Kakatolis on the boards. On the next possession for FM she misses her own shot and gets two offensive rebounds before getting fouled. After converting both free throws, Kakatolis would be involved in a nice save (see picture above, George caught it in action!) to Mara Howell for her second bucket of the quarter. FM leads 11 to 3 at the end of one.
In the second quarter things went from bad to worse for the Patriots. What shot attempts they did get in the first quarter were cut down by the FM defense in the second. To add to the misery Heather Deaton picks up two fouls within the first minute to garner her a seat next to Coach Maples. After only one attempt at the basket, Coach Maples calls a timeout with 6:33 left in the half and find his Pats down 15 – 3. However, after the timeout the momentum would remain with FM as they would finish the quarter with a 15 to 4 run. FM freshman Mara Howell would have her hand in most of the points in this run. She would score 9 points and have one assist. Kakatolis would take care of the rebounds and FM was able to get the ball running and score some easy baskets. Tina Allison would score with 16 seconds left in the quarter for TV’s second bucket of the quarter and FM would enjoy a 30 – 7 lead at the break.
FM would open the second quarter with 6 points on the run and keep the momentum in their favor. Courtney Oswalt would get a nice basket at the end of one fast break with a reverse lay-up from under the backboard. TV would also see a nice game from one of their freshman as 5’ 11” Tina Allison stops the bleeding for TV with a bucket at the 4:42 mark and TV trails 36 – 9. TV would “win” the rest of the quarter with an 8 to 11 run behind Allison and Olivia Frazier. However, FM would increase their lead by one for the quarter and they lead 44 – 20 at the end of 3.
The fourth quarter would be a continuation as FM maintains good defensive pressure and Kakatolis takes care of the boards. FM would win this quarter 16 – 12 and increase the final margin to 60 – 32.
After the game Coach Maples noted that “FM is a very good team and coming over here we knew we would have to have our best to play with them and we did not have that today.” “No excuses, FM just pounded us and they ran the floor on us today. We have had very few teams beat us down the floor and they did. We didn’t play well and they did.”
After the game, Coach Ned Gray was asked about the margin of victory and he said that he was surprised by the outcome. “We came out trying to set the tempo and playing a very aggressive defense and it’s a good thing we did because we didn’t hit any shots and they didn’t hit any shots. If we were not playing aggressive defense it could have been a different story. Later on we starting hitting on the offensive end and were still playing that aggressive defense. I think that was the difference in the game.”
TV......03......07......20......32
FM......11......30......44......60
TV
Allison - 12
Frazier - 8
Moore - 5
Deaton - 4
Dill - 3
FM
Howell - 15
Oswalt - 12
Davenport - 11
Kakatolis - 10
Spitler - 6
Peters - 4
Halderman - 2
