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Tri-Village
junior Krystal Falknor takes a shot during a recent game
against Ansonia. Saturday,
Falknor pumped in 12 points but was held
scoreless in the second half as the Lady Patriots fell to
Miami East,
51-44. It was the first loss of the season for the Patriots.
CNO file
photo by Dylan Knoop
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Lady Patriots
suffer first loss of the season
By George Starks
CASSTOWN- It was just a year ago when Tri-Village and Miami East hooked
up for the game that would ultimately decide the Cross County
Conference title.
In that game, the Vikings out-lasted the Patriots and went on to a
undefeated season in the conference.
Saturday, the Patriots traveled to Casstown for the rematch and a shot
at the CCC crown.
In the end, the outcome was the same as Miami East dumped a 51-44 loss
on the Patriots, sending Tri-Village down to its first defeat of the
season.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Brad Gray, coach of the Patriots. “We now know
the conference race is completely out of our hands. The same thing
happened to us last year and we have to put this behind us. Would we
like to be conference champions? Absolutely but we still have bigger
things in front of us.”
The bigger thing Gray was speaking of was the OHSAA basketball
tournament.
“If we are going to make a strong tournament run, we have to start
rebounding the ball better,” said Gray. “Offensive rebounding killed us
tonight and that’s why we lost the game. If we get some boards, we win
the game. In my opinion, our first shot defense was very good and we
executed our game plan to a tee. Our second, third and fourth shot
defense wasn’t good and when you give a team that many shots at the
basket, they will hit a high percentage.”
With three players in double figures, led by senior Teha Richards with
13 and sophomore Echo Brown with 10, it was the second half offense of
junior Krystal Falknor that made a huge difference.
Falknor netted 12 points in the first half as the Patriots trailed
23-18 at the break.
Those 12 points would be all she would score on the day as the Vikings
would shut her down, not allowing Falknor to get a shot off in the
final eight minutes.
Trailing by five at the break, the Patriots came out, looking to run on
the Vikings, closing the gap to two at one point but still trailed
37-27 after three as Miami put on a 7-0 run at one point in the stanza.
“I thought we came out of the locker room with a little bit of energy,”
Gray stated. “I thought the effort was there. We hit a couple of shots
at the start of the third quarter but for us, and I don’t want to sound
like a broken record, but our rebounding was the issue today.”
The loss dropped the Patriots to 10-1 on the season and 5-1 in the
conference while the Vikings go to 10-1 overall and 7-0 in the CCC.
Tri-Village will play at Tri-County North on Thursday.
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