By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

KETTERING — The Tri-Village High School boys basketball team end their first season in Division III in the Regional semifinal after a 54-45 loss to Harvest Prep at Trent Arena on Mar. 8.

Head coach Josh Sagester said he is proud of his team for the season they had after making the jump up in divisions.

“I’m proud of our kids, great year. (We had) really good seven seniors with good leadership. We went 21-6, District championship, finished top 16 in Division III after coming off being a state runner-up in Division IV,” Sagester said. “Pretty proud of them. It didn’t go our way tonight, but that’s the way it happens.”

The first quarter ended in a 12-12 tie after the Patriots had the lead for most of the quarter. The Warriors tied the game late after getting settled in.

The Patriots did get off to a good start to the second quarter, but the game was still close during the opening minutes of the second quarter.

Then Harvest Prep started to get turnovers. The on-ball pressure from the Warriors caused problems for the Patriots. During the second quarter, the Warriors could either get the steal or force Tri-Village to move the ball at a quicker pace than what they wanted. That led to some bad passes and more turnovers for the Patriots.

At halftime, Harvest Prep was up 30-16. Things continued to go south for the Patriots as the Warriors kept getting turnovers and converting them to points.

Tri-Village finished the game with 28 turnovers and Harvest Prep scored 28 points off of turnovers. Sagester said no matter who you play, those turnovers won’t get the job done.

But once the fourth quarter started, the Patriots started to show signs of life. Entering the fourth quarter down 43-26, the Patriots started to hammer away at the deficit.

Tri-Village started to take care of the ball better. Seniors Logan Call and Seth Cook came into the game and brought some energy to the team. Sagester said both of those guys are fighters and helped the team get back on track with their effort.

Call and Cook both crashed the boards and provided some post scoring. The rest of the team followed their lead and started to get turnovers. Tri-Village also started to put points on the board by driving to the basket.

With just over two minutes left in the game, the Patriots cut the Warriors’ lead to single digits.

After conquering the on-ball pressure, the Patriots were making a comeback. They just had to survive free throws from Harvest Prep to stay alive. But, the Warriors were able to rebound their misses from the line to run down the clock.

“We handled it at times. In the second quarter, we got off to a great start which what we wanted. It snowballs a little bit, fought back and gave ourselves a little bit chance there at the end,” Sagester said. “We didn’t get a defensive rebound on the free throw.”

Senior Wilson Suggs led the team with 15 points. Senior Justin Finkbine had eight points and junior Tanner Printz had seven.

The Patriots end their 2022-23 season with a 21-6 record and a 10-1 conference record. Despite losing seven seniors, they will still have some experience coming back next season.

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