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Tri-Village
junior Trace Couch pulls down one of his 12 rebounds Friday
against Arcanum
in a Cross County Conference game. Couch netted 23
points as the Patriots downed
Arcanum, 55-32. CNO Photos By Dylan Knoop
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Tri-Village
remains undefeated in conference play
Speed and experience too much for Arcanum
By George Starks
ARCANUM- When Tri-Village comes to the table to eat, the Patriots don’t
talk, they eat and often will devour.
Such was the case Friday as the Patriots remained undefeated in the
Cross County Conference with a 55-32 victory over Arcanum in a game
that wasn’t as close as the score indicates.
The Patriots took control right from the beginning, jumping out to a
commanding 11-0 lead before sophomore Andrew Baker could break the ice
at the 3:38 mark of the quarter with a three pointer.
At that point, the Pats finished the frame going on a 6-1 run and a
17-4 lead with one quarter in the books.
“I was really pleased with the tone that we set early,” said TV coach
Josh Sagester. “I was especially pleased with our full court man
defense. I thought we shared the ball welltonight. We didn’t especially
shoot the ball well all night but we did a good job finding the open
man and finding Trace (Couch) in the middle.”
Utilizing its speed, experience and size, the Trojans had no true
answer for the Patriots.
Couch, a 6-6 junior, was a force in the paint, scoring 23 points and
grabbing a dozen rebound. In addition, senior Richards chipped in with
16 markers in support of Couch.
“Trace did a nice job of getting position and our guards did a nice job
of finding him,” Sagester stated. “He has a nice touch around the rim a
just keeps getting better and better with every outing. He’s been
extremely good for us early. To achieve the goals that we have, you
need that post presence in the middle and he’s filling that void for
us.”
On defense, the ability to cut off the Trojans passing lane and forcing
20+ turnovers, kept the Trojans frustrated all evening.
At the break, the Patriots held 32-11 advantage then held Arcanum to
only two points in the third and owning a 47-13 lead.
“Our defense is getting better and we did a nice job of getting
position on defense,” Sags said. “Our intensity for three quarters,
trying to eliminate their ball screen action and we wanted to make a
conservative effort to cut that down. We knew they were going to shoot
a lot of perimeter shots and fortunately, we were able to get out hands
up and stop a lot of the attack from outside.”
Sagester called off the dogs in the fourth quarter but the game had
long been decided as the Patriots were just too much.
“We’ve had the opportunity to play them enough to know what’s coming at
you,” admitted Arcanum coach Marcus Bixler. “We were able to prepare
for them all week and I thought we had a really good week of practice.
The bottom line is that they were able to impose their will on us. They
were able to get the ball in the paint which caused us all kinds of
problems. Their pressure on our guards created a lot of turnovers and
that really set the tone. We went through a couple of really bad lulls
especially in the first half. We weren’t defend the ball and defending
the paint the way we needed to in order for us to be successful. Give
them (TV) credit. They do it and they do it well. They are going to do
it until you can take it away and unfortunately, we weren’t able to
take it away from them.
With the win, the Patriots went to 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the CCC while
the Trojans fell to 2-9 and 1-4 in the conference.
See more photos on Facebook Empowering Darke Count Youth
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Senior
Gavin Richards his in the paint for two of his 16 points Friday.
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