By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

VERSAILLES — The Tri-Village High School girls basketball team is moving on in the Southwest Division IV sectional. The Lady Patriots took care of Twin Valley South, 72-11, at Versailles High School on Feb. 18.

It wasn’t a pretty start for Tri-Village. They missed a lot of open shots early on and couldn’t get into a flow offensively.

Head coach Brad Gray said the Twin Valley South defense doubled senior Rylee Sagester and left the perimeter open. He would have liked to see the ball move inside out, but the team shot more outside since they had the space.

“The shots were wide open. I thought we settled pretty quickly for jump shots that we could have gotten at any point in the possession,” Gray said.

About midway through the first quarter, Tri-Village held a slim 6-5 lead. The Lady Patriots then started to settle in and went on a 14-0 run to close out the first quarter.

In the second quarter, offense started to get rolling. Turnovers started to turn into points on the other end. The half-court offense started to manufacture more makes than misses as the quarter went on.

The defense did work on Sagester. She had seven points in the first half and six of those points came from the free throw line. Senior Morgan Hunt benefited from the extra attention given to Sagester and had 17 first half points.

Gray said Hunt was able win her one-on-one matchup and drive to the hoop easily. Hunt, like most of the team, is capable of scoring on those types of matchups.

“Morgan Hunt gets those opportunities and she’s going to score and she’s going to score a lot. Credit to her for taking advantage of the opportunities given to her today,” Gray said.

At halftime, the Lady Patriots were leading 49-5. They held Twin Valley South scoreless in the second quarter.

In the second half, the players looked more comfortable as they continued to make their open shots and held off Twin Valley South.

For the Lady Panthers, sophomore Jordan Ritchie was held to seven points. She averages 14.2 points a game. Gray said senior Torie Richards did a great job defending her as they challenged her to keep her in check.

Hunt finished the game with 23 points. Richards had 15 points and Sagester had 12 points. Junior Bella Black also reached double-digit points with 10.

The one seeded Lady Patriots will take on the winner of the fourth seed in Tri-County North or the seventh seed in National Trail on Feb. 22 at Versailles. That game is set for a 6 p.m. tipoff. The winner will move on to the District Final.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]