New Madison, Ohio – January 28, 2010

The Tri-Village Lady Patriots jumped out to an 11-3 lead with just under two minutes to play in the 1st quarter. The Patriots found successes early on as Hillary Frech connected on a few short jumpers while Shaye Thomas was weaving her way to the basket to help gain the big lead.

Mississinawa then finished the quarter with a flurry by scoring six straights points all in the paint to close the gap to 11-9 to end the quarter.

The Hawks continued their assault inside tying the game 15-15 at the 3:27 mark of the second period. Mississinawa became the aggressors and ball hawked Tri-Village all over the floor disrupting any flow on the offensive end. To make matters worse their aggressiveness on the offensive end resulted in Kayla Linkous picking up her 3rd foul as the Hawks trailed by just one at the half 18-17.

“After we got up 11-3 our kids just relaxed a little to much and softened on defense, especially inside we just never challenged anyone,” said Coach Brad Gray. “We also over closed on the outside shooters which allowed penetration or easy passes into the interior and we knew we had to adjust for the second half,” added Gray.

Tri-Village picked up the pace offensively as they scored 14 points in the third frame to open up a 32-25 lead. With the Hawks clogging the middle and doubling on Linkous Tri-Village had to find other ways to score. It all started with Shaye Thomas attacking the middle of the defense for a couple of scores. The Patriots also again were successful in knocking down some outside shots with Hillary Frech and Kaila Burns doing the damage.

In the final stanza Tri-Village patiently worked the basketball eventually causing Miss Valley to pull out of the zone allowing them to get a one on one match up where Burns fed Linkous for an inside basket and T-V led 34-25.

They would continue to work the clock on each possession forcing a frustrated Mississnawa Valley team to foul. Shaye Thomas would make 3 straight trips in the one and bonus coming away with five points and with 31 seconds to play T-V led 39-27.

Kaila Burns would close out the scoring for the game with two more free throws to give the Patriots a 41-27 league win.

“Our halftime adjustments really paid off,” said Gray. They (Mississinawa) wasn’t hitting any outside shots in the first half, so we soft closed and really tightened up on the inside and it was effective in shutting their offense down.”

“We also challenged Shaye Thomas at the half, yes she is freshman but she runs the offense and is the leader on the floor for us. We need her to make decisions and force the defense. I’m proud of her because she stepped up in the second half and did what we asked, scored 17 points and was the difference in the game,” concluded Gray.

Tri-Village now stands at 10-5 overall and 7-2 in the conference and is back in action on Tuesday, traveling to New Lebanon taking on the Dixie Greyhounds in non-conference action.

Score by quarters:
Tri-Village…..11…07…14…09 - 41
Miss Valley….09…08…08…02 - 27

Individual Scoring
Tri-Village
Hillarie Frech 0-3-0/0 - 6
Kaila Burns 1-0-2/2 - 5
Adrianna Finkbine 0-0-1/2 - 1
Shaye Thomas 0-5-7/9 - 17
Kayla Linkous 0-4-0/0 – 8
Jordyn Hill 0-1-2/2 - 4
Totals 1-13-12/15 - 41

Mississinawa Valley
Livingston 0-2-0/0 - 4
Rehmert 0-1-0/0 - 2
Murphy 1-0-0/0 - 2
Saintigon 1-0-0/1 - 2
Schmitz 0-3-1/2 - 7
Cox 0-2-0/0 - 4
Wicker 0-2-0/3 - 4
Totals 0-13-1/6 - 27

Three Pointers:
Tri-Village 1 (Burns 1)