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Tri-Village
junior Kyle Pipenger goes to the bucket in a game played at
Franklin
Monroe. Pipenger netted 19 for the Patriots Wednesday against
Yellow Springs in
a 60-40 sectional victory at Troy. CNO Photo by
George Starks
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Tri-Village
survives Bulldogs scare
Patriots march into March
By George Starks
TROY- “It wasn’t pretty. Not the way we scripted it,” said Tri-Village
coach Josh Sagester after the Patriots 60-40 victory over Yellow
Springs Wednesday.
Juniors Tyler Cook and Kyle Pipenger pumped in 19 points each but it
wasn’t the scoring of either one but the play of Matt Werner. Werner,
who netted just six points, accounted for at least a dozen points not
being scored by the Bulldogs.
“He played a heck of a game,” said Sagester. “He really tried to take
their big two away and he really lit our fire starting the third
quarter.”
Trailing 22-18 at the break, the Patriots offense started to get things
started in the third.
Werner, who played inspired basketball in the first half on defense,
kept that passion in the third eight minutes as Tri-Village caught fire
on offense, scoring 19 points while holding the Dogs to just nine and
taking a 37-31 lead after three.
“Matt played like a captain tonight, especially in the second half,”
Sagester said. “He stepped up and made big free throws for us in the
second half. I was very pleased with his effort.”
Tri-Village blew things open in the final frame, outscoring the
Bulldogs 20-9 in the frame.
The first half was the problem for the Patriots. Tri-Village scored 12
in the opening eight minutes but could muster just six in the second.
Missing one easy shot after another, the Patriots lost 20 points on
missed shots in the paint.
“I can’t tell you how many lay-ups we missed in the first half,”
Sagester said. “We weren’t finishing like we were in the past. I
challenged our guys pretty hard at halftime and I was proud of their
response.”
Scoring 18 in the first half, the Patriots responded to Sagester with
42 in the second half.
“I’m very happy with the way they responded,” Sagester stated. “I was
listening to Larry Brown the other day and he said ‘you don’t win games
by accident.’ We’ve won 19 games for a reason and we played like it in
the second half.”
Bottom line… DEFENSE!
“I was very happy with the defensive effort the entire evening,”
Sagester pointed out. ”We held them to 16 in the first quarter, we just
couldn’t score and get the loose balls. I thought our man defense was
pretty darn good for 32 minutes.”
Tri-Village will play Catholic Central Saturday for the sectional title
Saturday at 7 p.m. at Troy.
Catholic Central beat Southeastern Wednesday 56-50.
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