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Tri-Village
senior Kyle Pipenger spots up for three of his game high 28
points against
Newton Wednesday. CNO photo by George Starks
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Patriots topple
Newton
By George Starks
TROY- “It wasn’t pretty.”
Those were the words of Tri-Village coach Josh Sagester Wednesday after
his sectional semi-final victory over Newton.
Newton, a team Sagester and the Patriots know well gave the New Madison
based team fits before the Patriots pulled away in the fourth quarter
to take a 66-39 victory.
After jumping out to a 20-5 first quarter lead, the Indians decided it
was time to play ball and play ball is exactly what they did.
Overcoming a 15 point first quarter deficit wasn’t easy for the Indians.
With Patriot senior Kyle Pipenger pumping in 28 points to lead the way
for T-V, the Tribe started to chip away and midway through the final
eight minutes, the Indians were trailing by a dozen, 47-36.
“This was a carbon copy of the game we played at their place to be
honest with you,” said Sagester. “We got up like 20-4 and kind of
relaxed and they came back on us.”
With the Indians breathing down their necks, the Patriots tightened the
laces a little tighter and started to pull away.
With 2:11 left in the game, the Patriots had come to life and were
holding a 60-37 advantage.
With that lead, Sagester cleared his bench.
In the Cross County Conference game played at Newton on February 15,
the Patriots a 62-45 victory on a night when the Indians would drop
nine treys on the Patriots.
Wednesday, the Indians dropped nine more three pointers on the Patriots.
“In two games, they made 18 three’s on us,” said Sagester. “They had
nine in their gym and nine right here and they made a few other shots
and we were not crisp tonight. We made plays when we needed to but we
weren’t crisp at all.”
Despite being step behind at times, the Patriots had a lot to be happy
about and that started in the opening quarter.
The 20-5 first quarter lead could be attributed to the fact that the
Patriots never had one turnover in the stanza and only had eight
miscues in the game.
“We handled the ball extremely well,” said Sagester. “We didn’t close
out a few times and we missed some things on offense that we don’t
usually miss.”
With the Patriots holding a 37-20 lead at the half, Sagester spoke his
peace to his team.
“I wasn’t happy at halftime,” said Sagester. “I tried to explain to
them that not every game is going to be pretty. Now we have to move on,
work on some things Thursday and Friday and see what happens.”
On the glass, the Patriots controlled the boards, out-rebounding the
Indians 32-16 with 20 of those boards coming off the offensive glass,
creating a lot of second chance points.
“Our bigs we active early,” said Sagester. “I don’t know if they got
fatigued or what but it seemed like our motors calmed down early. We
just have to get better.
Now 24-0, the Patriots will square off with Franklin Monroe for the
sectional title Saturday at Troy, starting at 7 pm.
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