New Madison, Ohio – 1/28/12

The Lady Patriots were in post season form taking on St. Henry in a very physcial game TV won 65-53.

On the strength of 6 points from Kayla Linkous and two trey’s from Shaye Thomas including a half court buzzer beater, the Lady Patirots owned a 12-4 first quarter lead.

The pace of the game would quicken in the 2nd frame as the Lady Redskins ramped up the pressure.

Tri-Village handled the pressure and continued to build up on their lead with some good outside shooting from Thomas, Ecko Brown and Teha Richards connecting on the trifecta as the Patriots garnered a 17 point lead 28-11.

The Redskins then went on a small run of their own to close the gap…but as she did in the first quarter, Shaye Thomas hit her 4th three-pointer of the half to give the Patriots a 31-20 halftime lead.

In the opening moments of the first half St. Henry assistant coach was hit with a technical foul, 2 free throws later along with a KJ fielder the score was 35-20.

At that point the flow of the game appeared to change with St Henry pressuring the entire length of the court and with being 10 deep they kept a steady rotation to try and wear down Tri-Village.

Offensively, the Redskins also began attacking the basket causing the Patriots to rack up the fouls and before the third quarter had ended St. Henry was in the double bonus.

St. Henry used that to their advantage scoring 16 points in the second half from the free throw line.

Tri-Village weathered the change of the game and attacked the pressure pounding the ball inside to Kayla Linkous. The Redskins were unable to stop Kayla as she scored 31 points and hauled down 14 rebounds.

The Patriots made their 15 point lead hold up as they went on to claim a 65-53 non-conference win over St. Henry.

“This was the first time we faced a team like St. Henry that plays a true 5 out offense and I thought we did a pretty good job, especially in the first half,” said coach Brad Gray.

“The game got physical…but we sort of thrive on that and have experience due to our deep tournament runs over the last couple of years and this was a lot like one of those games,” added Gray.

“Give St. Henry credit their attacking style of play and substitutions did have an effect on us as we got a little bit tired and started to put hands on their hips and stopped moving our feet,” continued Gray.

“But I’m proud of our girls they maintained their composure and we kept playing our game to get the win,” concluded Gray.

Tri-Village goes to 15-1 overall and 8-1 in conference and will be back in action Monday taking on Dixie.

Scoring by Quarters:
Tri-Village…12…19…19…25 – 65
St. Henry…..04…16…18…15 – 53

Individual Scoring:
Tri-Village: (15-1, 8-1)
E. Brown 1-1-0/0 – 5
K. Falknor 0-2-2/2 – 6
T. Richards 0-3-1/4 – 7
S. Thomas 4-0-2/5 – 14
K. Linkous 0-9-13/14 – 31
L. Bruner 0-1-0/0 – 2
Totals 5-16-18/25 – 65

St. Henry (9-8, 2-4)
Heitkamp 1-2-2/4 – 9
Lefeld 1-0-0/0 – 3
Lange 0-1-0/1 – 2
Koesters 0-1-0/0 – 2
Siefring 1-4-8/8 – 19
Clune 0-2-0/0 – 4
Mikesell 0-4-6/9 – 14
Totals 3-14-16/22 - 53