Springfield, Ohio 3/13/10

Tri-Village continued their quest for a state final four appearance by beating Southeastern 44-43 in the regional semifinal game advancing to the Regional finals. Ft. Loramie earned their way by upsetting 24-0 Ottoville, the number 1 ranked team in the state 48-30 in their regional semi-final game.

Fort Loramie had chartered these waters before finishing as state runner-ups 3-years ago, regional semi-finalist 2-years ago and regional finalist 1-year ago along with 5 state appearances. Tri-Village was navigating uncharted water having never advancing beyond the districts winning their first ever district title and first regional semi-final game.

The Lady Patriots were up to the challenge showing a tremendous effort to navigate the choppy waters of Lake Loramie. They started strong with Seniors Hillary Frech and Kaila Burns both knocking down outside shots to get the Patriots going. Kayla Linkous added a put-back that tied the game at 7 all. Loramie, however, shut out the Patriots the rest of the quarter scoring 4 more points to gain an 11-7 lead.

In the second stanza the Redskins opened up a 15-7 lead…but TV threw their lifejacket over the top inside to Linkous who scored 11 straight points to give TV a 19-17 lead. Loramie got one more score before both teams went into the harbor deadlocked at 19-19.

"They played hard and took us out of our offense in their zone," said Ft. Loramie Head Girls Coach Carla Siegel

Things started well for TV after intermission as KJ opened the scoring on two free throws to go up 21-19…but three straight scores by Loramie sprang a leak in the boat for TV as they went up 26-21. . Burns tried to repair the leak firing in a three-pointer at 3:44 to make it 26-24.

Loramie than began to throw more obstacles in the water and avoiding the stumps and shallow areas became a challenge as they held TV scoreless the rest of the way taking a 32-24 lead after three quarters of play.

The all too familiar territory for Loramie was evident in the final stanza. With the exception of one more KJ hard earned basket the relentless pressure by Loramie kept the Patriots stuck in the channel unable to score the basketball.

"We kept fronting Linkous, but the back side help wasn't arriving on time. I told the girls in the first quarter, the second quarter, and the third quarter. Finally, they got it," added Siegel.

The opportunistic Redskins opened up the throttle traveling across Lake Loramie full speed ahead to claim a 42-26 win all but ending the Patriots dream.

"Their constant pressure, athleticism and length wore us down," said coach Brad Gray of Tri-Village. “But I’m so proud of this team, we didn’t want it to end, we had no experience being here…we gave it all we had.”

“They (Fort Loramie) have been here before, we are trying to build a program where we have that experience and I think we’re on our way” added Gray

Kayla Linkous led the Patriots with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior Kaila Burns hit on two three’s for 6 points and had a couple of steals and senior Hillary Frech scored 5 points and added a couple of assists both closing out their careers.

Four other seniors also finished their careers at Tri-Village they are Adrianna Finkbine, Kylie Thomas, Brittany and Bre Abney

Tri-Village finished with a 19-6 record, as regional runner-ups, district champions, sectional champions and a second place finish in the cross county conference.

The season has ended…but it may be just the beginning for things to come.

Score by quarters:
Tri-Village.….07…12…03…02 – 26
Ft Loramie….11…08…15…08 – 42

Tri-Village (19-6)
Frech 0-2-0/0 – 4
Burns 2-0-0/0 – 6
S. Thomas 0-0-1/2 – 1
Linkous 0-5-5/8 – 15
Team Totals 2-7-6/10 – 26

Ft. Loramie (22-4)
Olberding 1-3-1/3 – 10
Gasson 0-1-0/1 – 2
Benanzer 0-1-2/2 – 4
Hilgefort 0-1-1/3 – 3
Zumberger 2-0-0/0 – 6
Ruhenkamp 0-3-1/3 – 7
Turner 0-4-2/3 - 10
Team Totals 3-13-7/15 – 42

Three Pointers:
TV – 2 (Burns 2)
FL – 3 (Zumberger 2, Olberding 1)