Tipp City, Ohio 3/06/10

It was history in the making as the Tri-Village Lady Patriots earned the schools first girls District Championship in an overtime thriller over the Miami Valley Rams.

Miami Valley started out the game on fire hitting four triples and put up 18 points. TV tried to keep pace as Kayla Linkous netted 6 points, with Kylie Thomas and Jordan Hill each adding a fielder from the foul line…but trading two’s for three’s left them short, trailing at the end of the period 18-10.

The second quarter turned out to be a stalemate as both teams scored 11 points each. Miami Valley had no answer to stop Linkous inside as she scored 10 of the 11 points with Shaye Thomas adding a free throw.

“Our girls really did a good job of feeding the post, said Coach Brad Gray. They were fronting and trying to bring backside help…but we were able to throw it over the top and KJ is very good at catching the ball and finishing.”

The only problem for Tri-Village was the Rams were hitting shots…in particular 5’8” sophomore Kori Faul who knocked down every shot she took, including 4 treys scoring 14 points giving them a 29-21 halftime lead.

During intermission Coach Gray challenged senior Hillary Frech telling her, “If we don’t stop Faul we probably won’t win this basketball game.”

Tri-Village resumed play after the half with a little more assertiveness on the defensive end of the floor. The results were positive as they held the Rams to just 6 points.

Guards Hillary Frech and Kaila Burns stepped forward connecting on outside shots helping the Patriots to their largest output of 13 points and TV was down one point 35-34 with 8.8 seconds to play with a chance to take the lead going into the 4th quarter.

However, on the inbounds play Kayla Linkous was called for a foul, since the ball is not in play and no clock running the official had to assess a technical foul… those are the rules.

Fortunately Miami Valley didn’t convert either free throw, nor were they able to score on the possession as Tri-Village avoided a possible huge momentum shift.

In the fourth stanza sophomore Shelby Carpenter got the Rams rolling with a deuce and then both teams locked in defensively neither willing to concede ground in a very physical game.

After nearly 4 minutes without scoring, freshman Teha Richards knocked down a 15’ jumper. On the very next possession she found an opening and drove through it knocking down a 5’ runner that gave Tri-Village their first lead on the night 38-37 with 3:12 to play.

After a big stop on defense Tri-Village went into a spread and Miami Valley fouled Linkous sending her to the free throw line. Linkous was good on 1-of-2 and TV led 39-37.

An aggressive play by junior post player Kailey Ketterer on a driving one handed toss tied the game at 39 with 1:21 to play.

Tri-Village, normally a good free throw shooting team toed the line twice in the last minute…but came away empty, the defense held and the game went into overtime.

Given a second chance, the Lady Patriots were not about to waste it scoring 10 points in the overtime period, all from the free throw line. Even then the Rams didn’t go away easy draining a three-pointer with 10 seconds to play and just one possession away from tying the game trailing 48-45.

Hillarie Frech went to the line with 8.6 seconds to play and sank 1-of-2 making it a two-possession game giving TV room to breathe.

When the Rams missed their three-point attempt and time expired new history was written in the books at Tri-Village as the 2009-2010 Lady Patriots became the first team in school history to be crowned District Champions!

Kayla Linkous shot 11-17 from the field for 65% and 6-8 from the free throw line for 28 points while pulling down 17 rebounds. Shaye Thomas led with 4 assists with Kaila Burns and Hillarie Frech handing out 3 dimes each. Jordan Hill and Shaye Thomas both grabbed 5 boards as well in the win.

The girls really came out and got after it in the second half defensively giving up just 10 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters to give us a chance,” said Brad Gray. “Once we tied it and sent it to overtime they were confident about finishing it and did it at the free throw line.”

“I’m so proud of the kids and what they have accomplished up to this point, these girls and this team mean so much to me and we aren’t ready for this to end yet,” concluded Coach Brad Gray.

Tri-Village record now stands at 18-5 overall and plays Southeastern next, who won by the score of 62-58 over Riverside. They will meet in the first round of the Southwest Division IV Regionals at Springfield High School on Thursday 3/11/10 at 8pm.

It’s ironic that TV will be playing Southeastern a team that has denied a number of Patriot teams district titles in the past…and now this team has the opportunity to extract some revenge.

If you are going to the game here is the address for you to use either on google or yahoo to map it for directions.

Springfield High School, 701 East Home Road, Springfield, 45503

Score by quarters:

Tri-Village.……10…11…13…05…10 – 49
Miami Valley….18…11…06…04…06 – 45

Tri-Village
Hillarie Frech 0-1-3/7 – 5
Teha Richards 0-2-0/1 – 4
Kaila Burns 1-0-0/0 – 3
Shaye Thomas 0-0-5/8 – 5
Jordan Hill 0-1-0/0 – 2
Kayla Linkous 0-11-6/8 – 28
Kylie Thomas 0-1-0/0 - 2
Team Totals 1-16-14/24 – 49

Miami Valley
S. Carpenter 5-5/6 – 16
L. Shaver 1-0-0 – 2
D. Carpenter 2-0-0 – 5
Faul 5 0-2 – 14
Jabari 1 0-0 – 2
Ketterer 3-0-0 – 6
Totals 17 5-8 – 45

Three Pointers:
Tri-Village 1 Burns 1)
Miami Valley 6 (Faul 4, S. Carpenter 1, D. Carpenter 1)

Turnovers:
TV – 14
MV – 11