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The
sign says it all. Tri-Village will be heading to Columbus Thursday
and its first appearance in the
states final four since 1992. CNO
Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Tri-Village punches ticket to state final
four
Patriots pop MAC power Marion Local
By George Starks
KETTERING- “I haven’t taken a breath yet. This is a real feeling. I’m
proud of our players and the way they performed on this platform was
phenomenal.”
Those were the words of Tri-Village coach Josh Sagester after his
Patriots rolled into the State Final Four Friday.
On the strength of some solid fourth quarter defense, the Patriots held
a strong Marion Local team to only six points en-route to a 62-44
regional final victory.
“It really hasn’t set in yet,” Sagester added. “We’ve put in a lot of
hours and you have to give our athletic department a lot of credit. We
had some awful good teams this year. We’ve played the Stivers’ and New
Breman’s and the Jefferson’s of the world. We upgraded our schedule and
we knew what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to compete. To get
this reward is phenomenal.”
Holding a slim 40-38 lead after three quarters of play, the Patriots
overwhelmed the much bigger Flyers with a 22 point barrage in the final
eight minutes as the Patriots literally walked the dog on the MAC power.
After the Patriots won in the semi-finals over Troy Christian, Sagester
said his Patriots had to do two things and his team did exactly what
was needed plus one other crucial element.
“I guess you could say that,” said Sagester referring to walking the
dog on the Flyers. “We made perimeter shots and did a good job of
rebounding the basketball. We protected the ball better and that was
big for us. We also hit foul shots. That was something we didn’t do
Tuesday night. In games like this you have to hit perimeter shots and
foul shots.”
The Patriots were perfect from the line 8/8 on the night until missing
one with 6:40 remaining after going nine of 20 against the Eagles.
The Patriots were able to protect the ball better as well.
After throwing the ball away 20 times against Troy Christian on
Tuesday, the Patriots had only eight miscues against the Flyers.
But in the end, it was all about the Patriots defense.
Tri-Village held 6-10 junior Luke Knapke scoreless while holding 6-7
junior Ryan Bruns and 6-6 senior Adam Bertke down as the two combined
to 19 points.
“We did a nice job on them. I thought we got stops when we needed
them,” said Sagester. “We knew we were outsized in the paint a little
bit but we talked about this being tough, nasty and physical. I thought
our kids did a very good job with that. I wrote on the board that we
had to be junkyard dogs. When that ball went low, we were coming and
getting it. Loose balls we had to get, 50/50 balls we had to get and
obviously they are a very good basketball team and we are very
fortunate. To hold Knapke scoreless is a pretty stellar performance on
his behalf (T. Cook)”
It was a first half that saw the Patriots trailing 8-5 after one but
holding a 26-25 lead at the break on a shot in the paint by junior
Damien Cook (24 points) on a breakaway.
In the half, there were three ties and 12 lead changes with the
Patriots getting the 12th lead change of the half.
With an 8-5 first quarter score, shots were few and far between.
“You didn't see things from where I was standing,” Sagester said.
“There weren’t a whole lot of shots in the lane so I looked at the
coaches and said we are going to have some trouble with some shots
right now. I thought needed to spread things a little bit and see if we
could put them in scramble mode and maybe increase more crevices for us
to attack. They were packing things in and taking away Big Cook (8
points), and again I never seen a whole lot of shots in that first
quarter and we wanted to keep giving ourselves more chances and
obviously it worked. Their height definitely played a factor in our
slow start. You can't simulate their size, you can only hold so many
broomsticks up in practice and simulate that. It's just not going to
work. So it took us a little bit of time to get acclimated and we've
played good competition this summer but not 6-10 is 6-10.”
When the second half started, it looked more like a three point
shooting contest as the Patriots and Flyers were trading buckets from
outside the arch.
“I thought we began to get better shots in the second quarter,”
Sagester pointed out. ”Give them credit, they had a kid come off the
bench (junior Dustin Seitz) and make two in a row and number five
(sophomore Cole Griesdorn) banks one in. At that point, you gotta throw
your hands up. Again, we talked about picking your poison a little bit
and if their sixth or seventh man is going to hit two in the first half
and their point guard is going to bank one in, we may have trouble
tonight.”
Tri-Village (26-1) will hook up with Convoy Crestview (27-0) Thursday
in Columbus at the Valu City Arena starting at 8:30.
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The
Patriots celebrate their regional championship after popping Marion
Local, 62-44.
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Tri-Village
junior Damien Cook (25) scores two of his game high 24 as he goes
between Marion Local's
Luke Knapke (30) and Adam Bertkey (33). Cook is the son of Tri-Village
alumnus, Scoob Cook. Scoob was the
starting center on the 1992 team that lost the state title game to St.
Henry.
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