ELITE 8!! Lady Patriots Win in OT and Advance to Regional Finals!

By Bob Moore - cccbasketball.com for tvpatriots.com

Springfield, Ohio - March 11, 2010

The 2009-10 edition of the Tri-Village Lady Patriots continues to thrive in rarified air as they climb to where no other Lady Patriots basketball team has gone before! Senior Kaila Burns came up big for the Patriots with 4 big shots from beyond the arc at critical times in the game and freshman point guard Shaye Thomas scored 8 of her 12 points in overtime as TV outlasted Southeastern 44 - 43 to advance to the Division IV Regional Finals!

The Patriots proved to basketball fans outside of New Madison that they are not a one trick pony. Sophomore leader Kaila Linkous scored 5 out the first 8 points for the Patriots as they stormed to 8 ˆ 0 lead in the first three minutes of the ballgame and it appeared that the Patriots were going to run away with the ballgame.

The next minute of the ballgame proved crucial as the Pats struggled on the defensive boards. Southeastern sophomore Jenna Erwin hauled down one of seven offensive rebounds for the Trojans in the first quarter and hit the stick back as she was fouled by TV's Jordan Hill. Erwin missed the free throw but TV turned the ball over to the Trojans and Erwin again found the bottom of the net as Linkous committed her first personal foul. Erwin missed the ensuing free throw but in one trip down the floor she single handedly cut the Pats margin to 4 points.

Erwin and a trio of Trojans stopped KJ on the block on TV‚s next possession. Erwin found an opening in the Patriots lane again to sink 2 points and drew the second foul from Linkous in less than a minute and forced Tri-Village Coach Brad Gray to put his leading scorer on the bench. Erwin again missed her 3rd attempt at an old fashioned three point play but the Trojans regained the basketball after TV struggled off the rebound and eventually lost the ball out of bounds. After a timeout by TV, the Trojans converted again on multiple attempts off the glass and Erwin completed her own 8 point run to tie the game at 8.

Southeastern took a 2 point lead with just under 3 minutes to play when Amber Rice scored to extend the Trojans lead to 8 - 10 and as fast as the Patriots stormed to an 8 - 0 lead it all evaporated to a 2 point deficit in less than 2 minutes.

Fortunately for the Patriots, Burns got the Patriots off to a good start at the beginning of the game hitting her first 3 point attempt. Fellow senior Hillary Frech breathed life back into the Patriot‚s lungs when she nailed a 3 pointer with just over a minute to play to ignite a 7 - 0 run. Freshman Teha Richards came off the bench to hit a jumper and Shaye Thomas ended the run with a deuce to give the Patriots a 5 point lead at the end of one.

The run at the end of the first quarter was huge as it allowed the Patriots some breathing room and gave Coach Gray the option to save KJ's remaining 3 fouls for the second half.

The Trojans went on a 9 point run, but it took 5 minutes off the clock. At the 3 minute mark KJ was at the scorer's table ready to come in when Thomas made a nice drive into the lane to narrow the gap back to 2 points, 17 - 19. Linkous went back to the bench after the bucket and TV was able to step up the defense to keep the margin at two going into the break. The TV guards did a good job of holding the ball the last 1:19 of the game to work for the last shot to tie or take the lead on a trey, but the Pats failed to score.

In the third the Trojan D did a good job of double and triple teaming Linkous in the paints. Erwin struck first blood for the Trojans at the 6:40 mark to extend their lead to 4 points. The senior combo of Burns and Frech brought relief to the Pats with a 7 point run as Burns nailed her second trey of the game and Frech connected for two bucket that gave the Pats a three point lead. After Rice tied the game with a deep 3 ball, Burns returned the favor by burying her 3rd trey of the game that gained the lead back to 3 for the Patriots. Southeasten took the lead back heading to the final minute of the 3rd quarter until Richards scored a 2 point bucket that gave the Pats a one point lead, 28-29.

In the fourth quarter the Pats controlled the tempo by being patient on offense. The Pats were able to get some offensive rebounds of their own in the 4th quarter and burnt the clock down to the 4:40 mark before Burns connected on her 4th trey of the evening.

Amber Rice narrowed the gap to 2 at the 4 minute mark, 32-20 and when the Pats resumed their deliberate control of the basketball they turned the ball over to the Trojans. Rice made the Pats pay the price as she nailed a 3 ball that gave the Trojans a one point lead with under 2:48 to play in regulation.

The two teams traded turnovers and a couple attempts at the basket until TV committed a foul on Erwin with 31 seconds remaining. Erwin hit her second attempt that increased the Trojan's margin to 2, 32-34. After a Southeastern timeout, TV beat the defensive pressure and opened up KJ on the block as she powered in for 2 points to tie the game and drew a foul with 16.1 seconds remaining. Linkous missed the free throw and Southeastern called a timeout with 7.5 seconds to play to set up a game winning play. TV had fouls to spare before Southeastern could earn a trip to the line. TV fouled twice in the remaining seconds and the Trojan's were unable to get a good look that forced the game into OT.

In the overtime it was the Shaye Thomas show. TV spread the floor leaving Thomas the opportunity to work her magic handling the basketball. Thomas and the Patriots worked the clock and Shaye drove the lane for 2 points to strike first blood for the red, white and blue.

After southeastern tied the game 36 all, Thomas drew a foul with 2:40 on the clock and sunk both attempts in a one and bonus situation to keep the pressure and the lead in the Patriots favor.

The Patriots defense forced a missed attempt from beyond the mark and on the next Patriot possession the freshman point guard drew the foul and went to the line for her second one and bonus. She was as cool as the other side of the pillow, Thomas rang up both attempts to extend the Patriot's lead to 4 with 1:52 remaining.

After surviving the Southeastern crash of the boards on defense the Patriots finally gathered in the rebound and Richards went to the line for the Pats for their final one and bonus, but missed her first attempt. TV survived the next possession forcing the Trojans to one attempt. They quickly fouled again and sent Burns to the line with 1:11 remaining. Burns sank her second attempt to extend the lead to 5, 41 - 36.

Southeastern continued to battle and after Thomas went 2 for 4 for the charity stripe down the final minute of the ball game, the Trojans narrowed the margin to 3 points with 22.4 second remaining.

Burns went to the line and sank a free throw that forced the game to two possessions for the Trojans to tie or win the game. The free throw turned out to be the winning point of the game and the Pats dodged a bullet as the Trojan's missed their next offensive attempt. After the Pats missed another opportunity at the free throw line, Erwin drained her 23rd point with a trey at the buzzer.

The Lady Patriots survived their second overtime victory in a row and advanced to face the Fort Loramie Indians this Saturday at 7:30 at Springfield High School..

Coach Brad Gray was obviously very excited for his team on earning a chance to play Fort Loramie in the Regional finals. "It's exciting; it's been a lot fun. The emotions are crazy but it so much fun that you don't want it to end.

Coach Gray was eager to share the praise for all his team but noted the play of his seniors with his leading scorer on the bench for most of the first half. "Burns and Frech hit some big shots. Burns has struggled shooting the ball and boy she picked a good day to come out and start hitting. When she hits like that and Frech hits like that we are a pretty good offensive team because it is tough to guard everybody and you can't keep three people on KJ. If they're hitting and you got one person on her, you can't stop her with one person.

He also gave kudos to his freshman point guard for her play in the overtime period. "Shaye hit some big free throw in this game and several games in this tournament."

We have some kids that have experienced winning a lot coming through the system. Shaye has been a winner; Kayla has been a winner and the seniors have been winners their whole lives; they just know how to win. They find a way to grind it out and do what they need to do at the end. It may not be pretty, but we get it done.

When asked by a reporter not familiar with the team if he was surprised that they won with Linkous only scoring 7 points. "By no means are we a one man team, commented Gray. "Don't get me wrong we have a pretty good horse and we're going to go to that horse as often as we can, but if they try to take that away we have other kids that can step up to score some points and do some things.

When asked about his thoughts on going to the Regional final. "For right now I'm going to enjoy the bus ride home and then stay up to 3 or 4 in the morning looking at tape and try to figure a game plan for Fort Loramie. All we have to do is to be better than them for one day. I just told the girls in the locker room, we don't have to be better than them on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday; we just have to be better than them on Saturday. When you get to this stage anything can happen. I've been to a lot of basketball games that underdogs were never given a chance to win a game and somehow found a way to pull it out and I'm never going to bet against these kids right here! Hopefully the girls can find a way to get it done on Saturday and have a magical ride to Columbus."

Scoring by quarters
Tri-Village……….15…02..12...05…10 - 44
Southeastern…10…09…09…06…09 - 43

Individual Scoring
Tri-Village
Frech - 7
Hill - 0
Burns - 14
S. Thomas - 12
Linkous - 7
Richards - 4
Totals - 44
FG% - 37.8 (14/37) FT % 52 (11/21)

Southeastern
Erwin - 23
Rice - 13
Snyder - 4
Bowman - 3
Totals - 43
FG% 29.2 (14/48) FT % 55.6 (5/9)

Three Point Goals
Tri-Village - 5 (Burns 4, Frech) (5/15-33.3%)
Southeastern - 4 (Erwin 2, Bowman, Rice) (4/24-16%)