Patriots face huge task in Marion Local
By George Starks

KETTERING- When Tri-Village enters play tonight at Trent Arena in Kettering, the Patriots will face a huge mountain.

That mountain will be provided by Maria Stein Marion Local.

With the word ‘mountain’ in mind, Marion Local (22-5) will feature several players at 6-6 or more, including Adam Bertke who is heading for Pitt to play quarterback for the Panthers.

The Flyers, a MAC team, disposed of the Shelby County League giants, Russia, Friday, 69-49.

Tonight’s game will mark the first time since 1992 that a Tri-Village boy’s basketball team has made it this far in the OHSAA state tournament.

“They are very long and they are going to cover some ground,” said Patriots coach Josh Sagester. “We know the mountain we are facing.”

With the size of the Flyers being a factor, Sagester is looking at another aspect of his next opponent.

“Everybody talks about their height which again is big but their guards made some huge plays for them tonight (Tuesday),” said Sagester. “They made some big shots tonight. The night I watched them play Arlington in a 44-34 game, those little guards made some big shots. Everybody spoke of their Big 3 that it leaves their guards kind of open. You have to pick your poison there as well.”

With the Patriots coming off a 59-49 win over Troy Christian Tuesday, there are two areas the Pats will need to shore up.

Shooting nine of 20 from the line against the Eagles, will not get a win over the battle tested Flyers, a team from the MAC.

The second thing the Pats will need to improve on is turnovers. Tri-Village committed 20 of them Tuesday against the Eagles.

“If we are going to beat this team, we have to protect the ball better,” said Sagester. “We have to rebound as well but moreover, we have to be us. We don’t have to be no more or no less than what we are. Tonight was a prime example. Certainly, we are going to need to tweak a few things before the next game. We are going to need to look at personnel but we’ve still got to be us and being us right now has been pretty good”.

Now that the Patriots are in the Elite 8, the Final Four is just one step away.

“This is huge for our program,” said Sagester. “Last year, we weren’t able to get over the hump (Losing to Troy Christian in the regional semi-finals). This year, we were able to get over it. Our kids are excited. We’re going to give it a good effort on Friday.”

The Winner of this game will move on to Columbus and will get the winner of the Convoy Crestview (26-0)/Wayne Trace (23-3) being played at Bowling Green tonight.

In other regional final games, 16-11 Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas will meet up with Richmond Heights in the Canton Regional while Columbus Africentric, 16-10 and Canal Winchester Harvest Prep, 25-1, will play in the Athens regional at Ohio University.