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Krystal
Falknor scored 17 first half points Monday at
Arcanum to help the Lady Patriots
take a 57-34 win over Arcanum. CNO
File Photo
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Cross
County Battle
First half
propels T-V to victory
By George Starks
ARCANUM- A lackluster first half of offense proved to be the demise for
Arcanum Monday as the Lady Trojans hosted Tri-Village in a CCC clash
that had been postponed from the previous Thursday.
Tri-Village’s Krystal Falknor dumped in 17 first half points for the
Patriots as Tri-Village rolled to a 57-34 victory over Arcanum.
With both teams having a lengthy lay-off between games, the Patriots
seem more bothered by it than the Trojans despite a commanding 33-10
lead at the half.
Leading by 23 at the break, the difference was that same 23 points in
the end.
Something that did not please Patriots coach Brad Gray.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Gray. “We are nowhere near where
we need to be right now to be effective in the post season. I’m very
disappointed with the basketball team that showed up tonight. We’ve had
10 days between games but we’ve been in the gym everyday so we
shouldn’t be rusty. In all honesty, we get better competition in
practice than what we get stepping out here against teams and I’m not
trying to be disrespectful to teams we play but we have boys that come
in a practice and give us a much better look that what we see in games
for the most part so rustiness shouldn’t be a factor.”
While Gray wasn’t pleased with the performance of his team, Arcanum
coach Rachel Fearon was just the opposite about her team’s second half
game.
“I am so proud of the girls for going out in the second half and going
after them,” said Fearon. “They never gave up. They gave it their all.
We were not intimidated by them and they never gave up.”
Even though the Patriots are ranked in the top five in the state in
D-IV, Arcanum wasn’t intimidated and the Trojans came out in the second
half ready to play.
When the final buzzer sounded, it was still a 23 point deficit. The
Trojans had played the Patriots even.
“We couldn’t put them away the way we should have,” said Gray. “We let
them hang around early on because we couldn’t make lay-ups. I think we
were something like 9 of 24 inside of five feet in the first half and
you’ve got to put those things away. We were up by 23 in the first half
and we should’ve been up by 35 or 40 points. We were fouling left and
right, hacking at people and trying to intimidate them. We can’t do
that. We’ve got to get down and play good, fundamental basketball.
Today, we certainly didn’t do that.”
With Echo Brown and Teha Richards in first half foul trouble, it was
the play of the three on the bench (Reah Mikesell, Liz Collins and
Heather Ferris) that proved to be the difference.
On offense, the threesome combined for 12 points, eight from Ferris.
On defense, it was Collins and Mikesell that created havoc in the game
for the Patriots.
“I thought all three of our bench kid came off and gave us good
minutes because we were in foul trouble early,” Gray pointed out. “They
provided us with a spark that we needed. I wish our first group would
have fed off that but apparently they didn’t. My three off the bench
played well.”
With junior Abby O’Donnell netting 10 for the Trojans, it was a group
of freshman that excelled.
Alexis Abner paced the Trojans with 11 while junior varsity
standout Abby Ross, came in during the fourth quarter and gave Fearon’s
team a much needed jump start.
“My freshmen play well together,” Fearon stated. “That’s a big part of
our success. They know where each other are at on the floor. My
freshmen (Ross, Abner, Rebecca Deao and Loganne Stone) among others are
the future of this team.”
With the post season coming up, the now 6-10 Arcanum Trojans mat be a
team to deal with come sectional tournament time.
Tri-Village (13-1, 9-1) will travel to Bradford Thursday while the
Trojans (6-10, 4-5) will play Ansonia for the third time this season,
at Ansonia Thursday.
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