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Tri-Village senior Echo Brown wrestles the ball away from Arcanum
sophomore Brittany Kinney
Thursday in a key Cross County Conference
battle at Arcanum. Brown scored 17 points and claimed six
rebounds for
the Patriots as Tri-Village claimed a 59-40 victory. CNO Photos by
George Starks
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Lady Patriots
remain perfect in conference play
Ansonia up next
By George Starks
ARCANUM- Tri-Village got one step closer to achieving perfection in the
Cross County Conference Thursday.
The Lady Patriots used a huge fourth quarter rally to break open a 10
point third quarter lead (42-32) to defeat Arcanum 59-40 Thursday at
Arcanum.
It was a night when the Patriots realized what was on the line and
played with confidence.
“They knew how big it was,” said Tri-Village coach Brad Gray, “We’re
aware of where everybody else is at in the league and we understand
Newton has only one league loss (48-35 to TV on 12/11). If you look at
matchups from here on out, the chances of the getting beat is not very
good. We knew if we wanted to do this by ourselves, we knew we had to
take care of this one tonight.”
Led by senior Echo Brown with 17 points, it was the play of sophomore
Danika Mann with 16 points and even more so it was the contributions of
another sophomore that brought out the praises of Gray.
“Danika’s been playing extremely well lately,” admitted Gray. “She’s
starting to figure it out. A sophomore who struggled a little bit as a
freshman and really struggled even more a little bit at the start of
this year. I think injury slowed her down but now, she’s healthy and
has grown up some.”
“Echo play extremely well,” Gray continued. “But I think sophomore
Rachel Miller was really big for us tonight (eight points/four
rebounds). She doesn’t really show up big in the box score as far as a
whole lot of points but what she did on the floor in guarding Abner
(Alexis) and really just handling the ball offensively for us. With
Arcanum bringing a lot of half court pressure. They defend really well
in the half court man to man and they make you work for every pass you
make and I though she did a heck of a job out there for us as the point
guard.”
Leading 18-9 after one, the Patriots were not able to pad that lead at
the break as the Trojans trailed 29-22 with 16 minutes left to play.
“I told the kids at halftime that we let go of an opportunity to break
it open in the first half,” said Gray. “We were up 14 (29-15) at one
point and they went on a 7-0 run to close out the half. It was bad
decisions on our part. I thought we quit defending as aggressively as
we did to start the game and we took some shots that were ill-advised
in my opinion. These kids are going to have moments like that and
hopefully you can withstand those moments and they did.”
The victory put the Pats at 9-0 in the conference and 16-1 overall.
With three more conference games left to play, Ansonia Saturday with
Bradford and Franklin Monroe, the conference title is in the control of
the Patriots.
Gray is looking past no one.
“This win tonight was a big one,” said Gray. “Weren’t no overlooking
anyone right now. We still have three more to win and the last thing we
want to do is get snake bit by someone else because we think we’ve done
something. We haven’t done anything yet. We’re in the driver’s seat and
it’s nice knowing that we control our own destiny. We do have to sit
back and hope that someone else wins to help you. A long as we stay
focused in practice and come in treating each game like it’s a
championship game, I think we’ll be ok. I hope we’ve not peaked as a
team yet. We just have to take it one game at a time.”
“It was a game that Arcanum coach Rachel Fearon wanted and the Trojans,
for three quarters, gave the Pats all they wanted.
“I thought the kids came out of the locker room and they were ready to
play a ballgame tonight,” said Fearon. “It was a different fell of
togetherness tonight for the team I thought. That togetherness got us
that little run going into the locker room.”
Led by sophomore Stevie Johnting with 17 and Abner with 11, the Trojans
are starting to come together with only three weeks until the start of
sectionals.
“I thought we came out of the gate with a little bit of confidence,”
Fearon stated. “We are starting to gel as a team. I told them that the
other team will walk out of their locker room with confidence and you
need to walk out of yours with confidence. Tonight, as a team, I
thought it was one of our best games working together and even through
three quarters defensively, it may have been one of our best defensive
games. I feel as a coach that we’re getting there and I think that’s
okay as we’re getting closer to tournament. We’re taking steps in a
positive direction.”
The Patriots will travel to Ansonia today for a noon date with the
Tigers in another CCC battle while the Lady Trojans will head t Twin
Valley south today for a noon tip.
Both games are CCC battles.
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Arcanum junior Rebecca Deao looks to drive to the bucket as Echo Brown
defends.
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