NEW PARIS, Ohio November 24, 2007

The plan was simple.

Expose the Lady Blazer middle and allow Tina Allison and Jordyn Fisherback to pretty much have their way.

Tri-Village had no problem while National Trail had no clue, as the Lady Patriots ripped the Blazers, 56-26, Saturday night at National Trail in a non-conference game.

“We played really well, especially in the first half,” said Patriots coach Brad Gray. “I thought we became a little complacent in the second half and that might have been because we had such a big lead at half-time that we actually lost focus or what. We actually got out of the flow of the game in the second quarter. Overall, I thought we played well tonight.”

A big lead at the half was putting it mildly on the part of Gray.

At the break, the Patriots held a commanding 26-5 lead with all five Blazer points coming from the foul line.

In fact, the Patriots defense never allowed their first field goal of the game until the 5:44 mark of the third on a shot by Amanda Grimes in the paint.

Trailing 17-1 at the end of the first eight minutes, Trail attempted to apply a 1-1-3 zone press on defense. The inability to stop Fisherback and Allison in the low post had created problems for the Blazers on defense.

The zone did help but by then it was way to late for the Blazers to make a game of it.

“That was the first zone we had seen this year,” said Grey. “Franklin Monroe did play a zone on us for a little bit but not as long as Trail played it tonight. I know we will have some work to do on that and that’s what we will be hitting on come Monday in practice.”

In a game that was never really close, Gray once again pointed out one aspect of his team that he has talked about in the past.

“We have to learn how to bury a team when we have a big lead like we did tonight,” Gray pointed out. “They (NT) never had an answer for our big girls down low but we never really put them totally away. With Tina and Jordyn in there, they didn’t match up well with us and we were just way too big down low. We had a huge size advantage with both those girls and they can both to step out and shoot tha ball. We have a lot of versatility on this team with those two.”

Allison led the Patriots with 22 points while Fisherback added 11 in support. Shawnda Stamps chipped in with eight.

The Tri-Village junior varsity took a 28-14 victory over Trail.

Tri-Village, 3-1, will play at Covington on Thursday in a Cross County Conference game.

Game Summary:

TV 17 09 19 11- 56

NT 01 04 10 11- 26

Individual Scoring:

Tri-Village (56)
Frech 02
Royey 01
Burns 03
Stamps 08
Allison 22
Bundy 03
Frazier 04
Fisherback 11
Totals 56

National Trail (26)
Grimes 04
Flory 02
Joyce 04
Little 06
Deaton 10
Totals 26