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Tri-Village
junior Heather Ferris looks to shoot over Ansonia freshman
Brooke Neal
in the second game of the annual Burkett Girls Basketball
Tournament at Tri-Village.
The Patriots had little trouble with the
Tigers taking a lopsided 85-19 victory.
CNO photos by George Starks
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Patriots take first step in defending title
T-V has no problem with Ansonia
By George Starks
NEW MADISON- Tri-Village put four players in double figures Friday, led
by senior Teha Richards with 19, as Tri-Village took the first step in
defending its Bill Burkett title, posting a lopsided 85-19 victory over
Ansonia.
“We came out and did what we had to do tonight,” said Patriots coach
Brad Grey. “Early on, we came out and jumped on them the way we should
have and we didn’t give them any hope at the start of the game. We sent
a message and when people see us on the schedule, we don’t want them to
just say, we have Tri-Village. We are the defending Southwest Regional
champions and a final four team. We have to be able to match the other
teams intensity every game out.”
It didn’t take the Patriots long to make the statement to all
competition.
Coming out in a full court press, the Patriots choked off the Tigers
offense in the back court and built a commanding 29-6 first quarter
lead and had all but ended the game at the half, holding a whopping
59-8 lead.
“That is who we are,” Grey said. “We are going to be a full court
man-to-man team. We’re not hiding anything from anybody. Every team we
play, we’re coming out in that man-to-man, full court, in your face. If
we can’t beat teams doing that then they deserve to beat us but we’re
not going to change who we are”.
Even in a 66 point blowout, Grey found weakness in his team.
“I thought early on we were letting people get behind us on defense,”
Grey said. “That is something we have to work on. I noticed FM was
working the long pass to the open people against Arcanum. We were like
sharks in bloody waters. We were attacking the basketball and trying to
get those easy lay-ups and we were forgetting about the people behind
us.”
As for first year coach Amber Short, her young Tigers are in constant
learning mode.
“They (TV) shot the lights out,” said Short. “They ran us up and down
the floor and they are a good team. My hats off to them and I wish them
luck. We scrapped and I would like to see a little more scrappiness out
of us. I want the girls to keep a positive attitude and play hard until
the game’s over. We have to learn from this and move on.”
Ansonia and Arcanum played for third place Saturday while the host
Patriots and Franklin Monroe went after each other in the championship
game.
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Ansonia
senior Alysia Hoying finds the going difficult against the Patriots
defense.
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