12/6/11 - HOUSTON
BY Kyle Shaner – Sports Editor Daily Advocate

The Tri-Village girl’s basketball team came out shooting well Tuesday night, helping lead the Lady Patriots to a win against the previously unbeaten Houston Wildcats.

Tri-Village hit eight 3-pointers in the first half Tuesday night in Houston, which helped them establish an early lead and come out with a 53-37 victory. The win improved Tri-Village to 5-0 on the season while Houston fell to 4-1.

“I’m proud to get out of here with a win,” Tri-Village coach Brad Gray said. “Houston was 4-0 coming into this game, plays in a really tough league. To come into their place and get out with a win, we’re going to take it.”

Tri-Village’s perimeter shooting really allowed the Lady Patriots to open things up offensively, Gray said. They started hitting the 3-pointers almost immediately, as Kayla Linkous sank her first of three 3-pointers for the first points of the game. Tri-Village led the rest of the game from that point.

Lexie Bruner also hit two of her three 3-pointers in the first quarter, helping Tri-Village establish an 18-8 lead through the first period.

In the second quarter, Linkous hit two 3-pointers, Bruner made a 3-pointer and Ecko Brown and Teha Richards both added a 3-pointer as

Tri-Village maintained its lead, taking a 35-26 advantage into halftime.

Tri-Village ran into some foul trouble in the first half with four of its starters picking up two fouls. However, in the second half, Houston’s scheme played to Tri-Village’s favor as the Wildcats went to a zone.

“When they went to that zone in the second half, with us being in foul trouble, it allowed us to just kind of play a slow pace, take some time off the clock while we were on the offensive end so we didn’t have to play a whole lot of defense and put our kids in a position where they needed to foul,” Gray said.

With Tri-Village slowing down the game, the scoring also slowed down, and the Lady Patriots led 42-31 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Tri-Village scored seven of its 11 points off free throws as it sealed the win 53-37.

The Lady Patriots did a good job of milking the clock in the second half, Gray said, and being patient in looking for good shots.

“With them coming out in a zone and us being in that foul trouble that we were in, we were in no hurry to take shots,” Gray said. “We were content with kind of moving the ball around a little bit because we didn’t want to come down here and have to play defense with our kids being in foul trouble.”

Gray said he was happy with the Lady Patriots’ shooting Tuesday, saying they’ll be tough to defend when they’re shooting like that. However, he still wants to see them rebound better, he said.

“I thought there were some deficiencies on our part,” Gray said. “I didn’t think we rebounded the ball very well at all. But the things I thought we did do is I thought everybody got involved.”

Linkous led all scorers in the game with 19 points. Also for Tri-Village, Shaye Thomas scored 11, Bruner added nine, Richards scored seven,
Krystal Falknor scored four, and Brown added three.

For Houston, Kristi Elliott was the leading scorer with 13 points, and Allison Roeth added 11.

Tri-Village will return to action Dec. 15 at Bethel.

The Tri-Village JV won by the score of 45-27 to go 5-0 on the year.

Editors Note – Congratulations to Kayla Linkous who became the school’s all-time leading scorer both boys and girls.

She surpassed Kara Schlechty who set the previous mark in 2002 with 1,667 points.

Linkous now stands at 1,674 points and is on pace to eclipse the 2,000 point barrier. To make things even more interesting she is on pace to snare 1,000 rebounds and that would put her in the top three in the State of Ohio basketball history.


Game Summary:

Score By Quarters:
Tri-Village…18…17…7…11 – 53
Houston…….8….18…5….6 – 37

Individual Scoring:
Tri-Village (5-0, 2-0)
E. Brown 1 0/0 – 3
K. Falknor 2-0/0 – 4
T. Richards 2-2/2 – 7
S. Thomas 3-5/6 – 11
L. Bruner 3-0/1 – 9
K. Linkous 6-4/6 – 19
Totals 17-11/15 – 53

Houston (4-1)
Holthaus 0-2/4 – 2
Elliot 3-7/9 – 13
Roeth 5-0/0 – 11
Reister 1-1/2 – 3
Stang 2-0/0 – 4
Booher 2-0/0 – 4
Totals 13-12/15 – 37

3-Pointers
Tri-Village – 8 (Bruner 3, Linkous 3, Brown, Richards)
Houston – 1 (Roeth)