NEW MADISON – The Tri-Village girls basketball team overwhelmed visiting Twin Valley South on Thursday in a 102-28 Cross County Conference win.
It was a game that no matter what player was on the floor, when a shot was going up, the ball was going in as the Lady Patriots torched the nets on 16 triples, 22 2-pointers and 10-for-14 from the charity stripe.
Tri-Village’s full-court defensive pressure in the opening frame set the stage for a big quarter as the Patriots scored 31 points with Allie Downing scoring 12 of them, Emma Printz 8 and Danika Mann 6.
Twin Valley South connected on two 3-pointers in the first period including one at the buzzer for its 6 points. They would be the only triples of the game for the Panthers.
In the second quarter Downing continued her hot hand with another 8 points, and the Patriots as a team scored 21 to take a 52-13 halftime lead.
The Patriots used their inside game in the third frame with Mann scoring 14 points and she tallied nine field goals and 22 points for the game.
Despite a strong inside game the Patriots were still hot from the outside as Rachel Miller connected on two triples, adding to her total of four for the game and 15 points.
Downing connected on one more triple in the period, giving her five on the night and a game-high 23 points. Downing would sit the rest of the game.
The Patriots’ success in the post continued in the final stanza as Lauren Flory scored 7 points.
Freshman Lisa Siler hit two triples and tallied 8 points in the game, and freshman Trisha Porter also hit two triples on the night and added 8 points as well.
Printz finished the game with 13 points, giving Tri-Village four players in double figures in its 102-28 win over South.
“Obviously, the ball was going in the hoop tonight for us,” Tri-Village girls basketball coach Brad Gray said. “We shot the ball extremely well. We have a lot of kids that can shoot the basketball, and I don’t know if we have ever had a game where all of them were as on as they were tonight. It didn’t matter who was shooting the ball it was going in the basket.”
As pleased as Coach Gray was with his offense he still thinks the Patriots have plenty of room for improvement especially if they plan to make a deep run into the tournament.
“We need to get better defensively,” he said. “I know we didn’t give up a ton of points tonight. Our focus the last week and half is to try and get better in our man-to-man half-court. I think we are getting better, but we’re still far away from where we need to be where we need to be.
“In our half court we are spending too much time going for steals instead of making it difficult on the offense to get easy looks and being in the right position to box out to get rebounds.
“Those are the kinds of things I want them doing, but when we see teams who struggle to handle the basketball, we want to jump and steal the ball, and we don’t stay disciplined,” Gray added.
“We have a tough schedule coming up to close out the regular season with New Bremen, Newton, Arcanum, Versailles, Bradford and Fort Recovery. We have to be better defensively in our half court,” Gray concluded.
Tri-Village improved to 16-0 overall and 9-0 in the CCC. The Patriots will host New Bremen at noon on Saturday.
Score by quarters:
TV South ….. 06 … 07 … 05 … 10 – 28
Tri-Village … 31 … 21 … 30 … 20 – 102
Team scoring:
TV South – Crews 5, Johnson 6, Hutchings 6, Carson 4, Woodyard 3, Shafer 2, Binghman 2 –
Totals – 2-8-6/12 – 28
Tri-Village – Miller 15, Moore 4, Printz 13, Porters 8, Downing 23, P. Bietry 2, Flory 7, Mann 22 – Totals – 16-22-10/14 – 102
3-pointers:
TVS – 2 (Johnson, Woodyard)
TV – 16 (Downing 5, Miller 4, Printz 3, Porter 2, Siler 2)
