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Tri-Village
coach Brad Grey cuts down the nets after the Lady Patriots
56-42 district title
win over Miami Valley Saturday at Tipp City. CNO
Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Well tuned;
Lady Patriots keep motoring
Regional semi-finals next
By George Starks
TIPP CITY- When an engine is hitting on all cylinders, the driver is
confident of its performance. The Tri-Village Lady Patriots are the
engine that driver (coach) Brad Grey is confident with.
The performance the Patriots put on Saturday was nearly perfect as the
team clicked on all cylinders.
On the heels of a 32 point, 11 rebound performance by senior Kayla
Linkous, Tri-Village will go into the regionals for the third year in a
row as the Patriots rolled to a 56-42 district finals victory over
Miami Valley.
Jumping out to an 18-6 lead with eight minutes in the books, the
Patriots looked like they were going to roll right through the Rams
defense, but the second quarter didn’t hold that same promise. With the
Patriots making things look easy, the Rams put together a run in the
second quarter and trailed by a slim 29-21 count.
“We clicked early, unfortunately, we didn‘t maintain that,” said Grey
of his team. “We talked a lot about coming out early and getting them
down by a significant margin in the first quarter, we would be able to
extend on that. Characteristic of this team, we just don’t do that. We
tend to get big leads and then shut it down for whatever the reason. We
can’t do that the next game. If we shut it down for a minute, we’re in
trouble. We have to play for 32 minutes and these kids have to
understand that.”
With Grey saying that, one of his players backed him up.
“We get big lead and lose focus,” said junior Teah Richards. “I don’t
know why but we do. We get these big leads and we quit playing and we
do that a lot. We get complacent with where we’re at and we stop. I
think we played well but we need to learn that when we get a lead to
keep it.”
In a phone interview with Grey Friday, the Patriots coach said he had
to stay focused on Shelby Carpenter and slow the Ram senior down.
Carpenter netted 27 for Miami Valley, leading the Rams on the offensive
end.
“She’s a player, I really don‘t know what to say” said Grey. “We had
three people guarding her in this game and I think Teah was on her more
than anyone. She was a tough match-up for us. We had a touch match-up
for them as well. We had a couple of kids step up and make some plays
when we needed them.”
Holding an eight point lead at the break, the Patriots opened it up
again in the third, building a 43-29 advantage with eight minutes
remaining. The difference, the Patriots kept the momentum going a full
16 minutes. On several occasions, Grey applauded his team in the second
half.
“There were a lot of good thing out there that made me happy,” said
Grey. “I thought our experience in this game showed and I think our
kids never got rattled even when they made the run at us. It was an
ugly stretch for us when they cut it to eight at half-time and our kids
never got rattled. We had some words in the locker room and we buckled
down and built that lead back up in the third quarter. In the fourth
quarter, we took the air out of the ball. We ran the clock, made them
come out and chase us and that was the difference there.”
To go along with the 32 from Linkous, the Patriots once again proved
there is more to this team than the senior as Richards netted a dozen
and Shaye Thomas added ten.
“Kayla is great and deserves to be Player of the Year in division
four,” Grey stated. “I think the rest of this team deserves as much
credit as she gets. I think our other kids get slighted some and it is
unfair to them. I don’t really think they care about that either. I
think they are the ones saying, “go ahead and recognize the other
players from the other teams but we will take what we have and that’s
fine with us.”
The Patriots will face New Knoxville Thursday in the regional
semi-final at Tipp City. Game time is set for 6:15 p.m.
Also, the Versailles boys will be playing Hamilton-Badin Thursday at
the University of Dayton Arena. Game time is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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Patriot
junior Teah Richards battles against a player from Miami Valley
Saturday.
Richards netted 12 points for the Patriots in the win.
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To
the winner goes the spoils as the lone senior for Tri-Village, Kayla
Linkous, chats with Scott Ward and Ryan Gathard on WTGR radio after the
Patriots victory. Linkous scored a game high 32 points and yanked down
11 rebounds in the victory.
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