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Tri-Village
senior Kayla Linkous fights for the ball with Alisha Patty
(12) and Jennifer
Ross (23) of Bradford Saturday at Brookville in
sectional final action. The Lady Patriots
won the title 62-25. CNO
Photo by Dylan Knoop
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Lady Patriots
advance to district
Bradford plays well in loss
By George Starks
BROOKVILLE- Entering into the sectional final with Bradford Saturday,
Tri-Village coach Brad Gray had said more than once that the rest of
the season was a one game series. After rolling to a 62-25 victory, the
Lady Patriots went to 22-1 on the year but according to Gray, his kids
are still 0-0.
“You can take that 22-1 record and throw it out the door,” Gray said.
“It really means nothing at this point because if you come out just
once and go 0-1, it’s over. There is no tomorrow. If you win, you are
1-0 on the day but that’s it. After that, you are back to 0-0 again.”
In its first two tournament games, the Patriots started sluggish
against Jefferson and Bethel. That wasn’t the case with Bradford.
Tri-Village came out focused and fired up, taking a 21-5 lead after one
and a 40-8 advantage at the break.
“We showed what kind of a team we are today right out of the gate,”
Gray said. “I was very disappointed with the way we came out in the
first two games. Today, we answered the bell.”
The Patriots defense and a press was more than the Lady Railroaders
could handle.
“That press was new for us. We just put than in yesterday,” Gray
pointed out. “The press we were running was very ineffective and the
press we were running today we feel can cause some teams problems.”
Holding a team to just eight points in a half is an earmark of a team’s
defense.
“We know what we are capable of defensively,” said Gray. “What you saw
in the previous two games wasn’t us. I told someone else we were kind
of sleepwalking through the first two games. Today that wasn’t the
case.”
On offense, senior Kayla Linkous netted 23 for the Patriots while Teah
Richards had 15 and Shaye Thomas 10 in support.
It took all of two seconds for adversity to strike Bradford when
sophomore Brooke Dunlevy went down with an ankle injury after the
opening tip.
That put Bradford and Coach Dennis Fair behind the eight ball right
away.
“She is a key player and probably my leading scorer,” admitted Fair.
“So that was a big hit for us right after the tip of the ball. It
definitely hurt.”
Losing by 37, the Bradford coach felt his team played better than the
final outcome indicated.
“I think we played better than that,” said Fair. “The first half, they
(Tri-Village) jumped on us quite a bit and we couldn’t make a basket.
We’ve struggled all year making shots and I feel we could have played
better than we did.”
Trailing by 32 at the break (40-8), Fair put it all on the line to his
team.
“I told them they were going to have to come out and play like they
were capable of playing or continue to keep receiving the butt-kicking
Tri-Village was handing out to them in the first half,” Fair said.
“They responded and played up to their potential.”
Only scoring eight in the first half, the Roaders netted nine in the
third and eight more in the final stanza, losing the second half by a
score of 22-17.
Tri-Village will move on to the district final to be played next
Saturday at Tipp City against Miami Valley. The Lady Rams beat out the
top seed, Cincinnati Country Day, 41-32, winning the Monroe sectional.
Game time is set for 3 p.m.
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