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With
hands on his hips, all Brad Grey and his team could do was sit and
watch the Lady Patriots season come to an end. Ft. Loramie ended the
Tri-Village season Saturday in the regional finals, 69-46.
CNO photos by Dylan Knoop
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Lady Patriots
Fall Short in State Qualifier
By George Starks
TIPP CITY- Like a hot knife going through butter, the Ft. Loramie Lady
Redskins went through the Tri-Village defense.
For the fourth time in four years, the two teams have met in the
regional finals with the Redskins winning two of the last three and
moving on to state.Now, it’s three of the last four.
On a night when the Redskins were just too much for the Patriots, Ft.
Loramie wore the Patriots down and walked off with a 69-46 victory.
Through the first four minutes of the opening quarter, the Patriots
hung with their opponents, holding a 9-9 tie with 3:42 remaining in the
half. At that point, the light switch was turned on and Ft. Loramie was
pure electric, outscoring Tri-Village 10-0 to take a 19-9 lead with
eight minutes in the books. By the end of the half, the Patriots were
trailing 39-19 and the writing was on the wall.
“We were with them at 9-9 the last four minutes and the whole second
quarter was a disaster for us,” said Patriots coach Brad Grey. “From
that point to the end of the half, they went on a 30-10 run on us. When
you have a bad span like that against a team like Ft. Loramie, you’re
not going to win. A lot of that had to do with the fact that we
couldn’t get a board. We talked the last couple of days that we had to
have five kids going to the glass. We couldn’t rely on one kid. For a
while there, we didn’t have a rebound for what seemed like forever. We
were down 9-0 on the boards at one point. You can’t give them second,
third and fourth opportunities to score. Our first shot defense was
good. It was good all night long other than a few transition baskets.”
Trailing by 20 at the intermission, the message from Grey was
simple.“We talked about never giving up,” said Grey. “We made a run on
them in the fourth quarter and I’m proud of my kids for not
quitting.”Trailing 52-26 with a quarter left to play, the Patriots
offense started to come to life as Tri-Village started to light things
up.With a trey from sophomore Echo Brown and buckets from Reah
Mikesell, Shaye Thomas and Teha Richards, the 26 point deficit had been
trimmed to less than 20.
With a bench as deep as it was wide, Ft. Loramie coach Carla Siegel
herded players in and out like cattle at an auction barn, wearing the
Patriots down in quick fashion.“Our message going into the fourth
quarter was not to roll over,” Grey said. “We had it trimmed down to 12
or 14 there in the fourth quarter. Then we started to struggle and they
struggled for a while but we couldn’t capitalize. I kind of realized it
wasn’t going to be our night. We felt if we could get it down to 10 or
12 points, we would have a chance but we weren’t able to do that.”
Finishing the season with a 25-3 mark, Grey will lose three seniors,
including two four-year starters in Richards and Thomas as well
as Elizabeth Collins.“We were here four years in a row because of the
kids,” said Grey. “No one expected us to even be here this year but
they played with a chip on their shoulders to prove to people they had
what it took to get here. Their goal was to get to Columbus again but
they fell one game short. I hope when the sting of this loss wears off,
they realize what they have accomplished. Four consecutive regional
final games and they got to state one time. They’ve done things most
kids never get a chance to do.”
Going out with a loss, Richards, Collins and Thomas will leave with 93
wins under their belts as Patriots.Thomas led the Pats cause with 11
points while Richards and Brown had 11 each.
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Tri-Village
senior Teha Richards drives the bucket for two of her 10 points against
the Redskins.
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Shaye
Thomas is surrounded by a covey of Redskins on her way to an 11 point
night in her final game as a Patriot.
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