12/1/2011

NEW MADISON, Ohio

The Lady Patriots hosted Lehman Catholic looking to be tested after opening the season with two lopsided wins to claim the Bill Burkett Tournament Trophy.

For the first 5 minutes of the opening period it looked like the Patriots were not going to be challenged as they raced out to a 17-4 lead.

The Lady Cavaliers outscored T-V 4-3 over the next few minutes and trailed 20-8.

Krystal Falknor knocked down 3 outside jumpers in the opening frame to spread out the Lehman defense and Kayla Linkous put up 10 points as well.

Lehman served noticed they weren’t going away as they won the 2nd quarter 12-8 cutting the lead down to 28-20 at the half.

“I think our girls got a little complacent out there”, said Coach Brad Gray. “Shaye and Kayla had to sit some due to foul trouble…but other players have to step up and one thing we can control is our defensive intensity and we didn’t do that which allowed Lehman to get back in the game.”

A 29 point explosion by the Lady Patriots in the 3rd quarter made Coach Gray happy, but giving up 17 points didn’t.

“Our awareness on defense wasn’t very good tonight. We preached all week and even at halftime to be aware of Sargeant and Speerman on the give and cut and their inside play yet we just didn’t execute and those two girls really hurt us tonight.”

Krystal Falknor and Shaye Thomas both registered 8 points to pace TV in the third frame.

Both teams played to a 12-12 tie in the final stanza as Tri-Village went on to record a 69-49 non-conference win over the Cavaliers.

With just 6:30 minutes to play in the game Kayla Linkous went down on the baseline causing the gym to go silent. After about 5 minutes she was helped to the bench and appeared to be in great pain causing the Patriot faithful to be concerned.

“She should be fine, she tweaked her ankle pretty good and if we needed to I’m sure she would have played. With some ice and rest she should be ready to go Saturday against National Trail”, said Coach Gray.

But of more concern to coach gray was where did his defense go that started the season.

“We have some really smart kids who excel in the classroom and have good basketball IQ so they know what to do, I just hope this isn’t a sign of complacency because we can’t afford to lose focus on defense, if this was Miami East, St. Henry or National Trail we would have lost the game tonight”, concluded Gray.

Kayla Linkous led Tri-Village scoring 23 points while Krystal Falknor netted 14, Shaye Thomas, Heather Ferris and Lexie Bruner all added eight points for the Patriots.

In junior varsity action TV girls are now 3-0 with a 46-32 win over Lehman Catholic. Raya Mikesell dropped in 14 points and Alicia Hollinger chipped in 10 for the win.

The girls are back in action on Saturday for the traditional boys and girls double header. The JV girls play at 3pm, JV Boys at 4:30pm, Varsity girls at 6pm and Varsity boys at 7:30.

Summary:

Tri-Village…20…08…29…12 – 69
Lehman…...08…12…17…12 – 49

Tri-Village (3-0)
Brown.……0…0…0-2 – 0
Falknor..…2…4…0-0 – 14
Richards…0…3…1-2 – 8
Thomas….2…0…2-2 – 8
Ferris…….0…3…2-2 – 8
Burns…….0…0…0-1 – 1
Bruner……0…3…0-0 – 8
Linkous…..2…7…3-3 – 23
Totals……6..20.11-15 – 69

Lehman (2-1)
Yannacci…0…1…1-2 – 3
Flagle……..0….0…3-4 – 3
Williams…..0….0…1-3 – 1
Speerman..0…11…0-3 – 23
Hatcher…..0…..1…3-4 – 5
Sargeant…0…..4…6-8 – 14
Totals……1….16.14-24 - 49