TROY – Tri-Village squared off against a familiar postseason foe, Troy Christian, with a sectional title on the line Friday night.
The Patriots’ team defense smothered the Eagles, giving up just 21 points, on their way to an easy 52-21 win to advance to the district finals.
Troy Christian jumped on top in the game on two free throws, and little did anyone know it would be the only points the Eagles would score in the opening frame.
Jonny Wilson grabbed the lead for the PATS on a triple, and it was a lead they would never lose the rest of the way.
Gavin Richards added a 3-ball and Jared Buckley scored 4 points with two tough buckets in the paint to give TV an 11-2 first quarter advantage.
A combination of good defense and cold shooting by Troy Christian continued into the second period as the Patriots went up 24-2 before the Eagles answered with a triple from Connor Case at the 2:34 mark to end 13 minutes of scoreless basketball.
The Patriots behind Richards’ 7 and Trace Couch’s 6 second quarter points gave them a 24-8 halftime advantage.
After the break, Wilson drained his second triple and it quickly became the Jonny show as he scored 12 points in the period; he followed with another trey then a couple of acrobatic scores inside and finally two free throws, lifting the Patriots to a huge 44-15 lead all but putting the game out of reach for the Eagles.
“What a performance tonight by Jonny Wilson,” Tri-Village boys basketball coach Josh Sagester said. “That kid deserves it. We know he’s capable of doing it … they weren’t guarding him early and so we asked him to make some plays for us in the third quarter, and he shined.”
Tri-Village slowed the pace way down in the final stanza and instead of attacking the Patriots were content to let it play out as they would go on to defeat the Troy Christian 52-21.
Wilson led the way tonight with 15 points, Couch had 13 and Richards 11 for the Patriots in the win.
Tri-Village advances to the district finals at UD Arena, playing another familiar district opponent, Jackson Center, on Friday with game time yet to be determined.
“That was quite a performance from start to finish on both ends,” Sagester said. “We’ve had a lot of good teams at Tri-Village … but this might be the most convincing sectional final win we’ve had. It was a great team effort.
“It was a total team effort, especially on defense. When you hold a 20-point scorer, 12 rebound a night guy to 5 points and six rebounds, that means other guys stepped up and did their part,” Sagester said.
“The game plan was to have Trace guard their big, but he picks up a quick silly foul so Jared Buckley and Christian Ricker did a great job of picking him up, and our help defense did a great job controlling their big guy,” Sagester said.
“This team is best when we get a third scorer. We got that tonight with Wilson … but our supporting cast was excellent as well. Jared Buckley had a couple of tough scores inside and defensively was solid, and Dillon McCullough knocked down some short jumpers and distributed the ball well for us tonight as well,” Sagester added.
“We were fortunate. Tonight was our night. We are going to enjoy it now … but will get back to work tomorrow. It’s going to be a dog fight with Jackson Center,” Sagester concluded.
Box score:
Score by quarters:
TV…11…13…20…08 – 52
TC…02…06…07…06 – 21
Individual scores:
Tri-Village
McCullough 6, Wilson 15, Richards 11, Buckley 6, Couch 14,
Totals 4-17-6/10 – 52
Troy Christian
Anderson 5, Schenk 5, Wynne 5, Spurlace 3, Case 3
Totals 4-3-3/4 – 21
3-pointers:
TV – 4 (Wilson 3, Richards 1)
TC – 4¬¬ (Schenk 1, Wynne 1, Spurlace 1, Case 1)