VERSAILLES – The Tri-Village Lady Patriots took advantage of a second-half running clock to defeat the National Trail Lady Blazers 64-23 in OHSAA DIV opening-round tournament play.
“Our defense today created a lot more offense for us than what it has been,” said Tri-Village coach, Brad Gray. “We are a good defensive basketball team but sometimes our defense hasn’t gotten us as much offense as I thought it would so it was nice today to see our defense create offense for us.”
Tri-Village led 14-2 over Trail after one-quarter of play led by eight Kynnedi Hager points, including 2-2 at the charity stripe, and six Adalynn Hines points, including 2-2 at the free throw line.
The Lady Patriots took the second quarter 17-7 with Tai Mize good for six points including a 3-pointer and K. Hager hitting for five points sending the teams to the bread with Tri-Village leading 31-9.
Period No. 3 had the Lady Patriots with a 30-point 40-10 advantage at 5:43 on its way to a 21-6 third and 52-15 advantage after three complete. K. Hager accounted for 12 Tri-Village third-quarter points including a perfect 8-8 at the free throw line. With 25 points in the book, the 6’3” sophomore’s work was complete for the night, and would not see the fourth quarter court. Sydnee Delong was good for seven third-quarter points.
“The focal point all week in practice was trying to get as many post touches as we could, not necessarily just for Kynnedi but anybody,” said Coach Gray. “If we get post touches we are way more efficient and I thought we did a good job of that. Fortunately, we got a good whistle today and she was able to get to the line and when she gets to the line she is efficient there.”
The Lady Patriots extended its lead to 60-15 with 4:15 on the fourth quarter board before settling for a 41-point first-round tournament win.
The Lady Patriots’ Belle Black was back in uniform following an earlier season injury but did not see any action her first game back.
“She will be back for that one for sure,” Coach Gray said of the team’s possible sectional final matchup with Mississinawa Valley. “She’s practicing right now. We’re trying to ease her back in making sure she has her legs back. She’s sat for a while so we have to get her back up to speed.”
Kynnedi Hager led Tri-Village and all scorers with a game-high 25 points.
The No. 2 seed Tri-Village Lady Patriots take on No. 20 seed Fairlawn, Tuesday, February 20 at Versailles with a 6 p.m. start time.
BOXSCORE:
TRI-VILLAGE 64, NATIONAL TRAIL 23
Tri-Village – K. Hager 25, A. Hines 10, S. DeLong 10, T. Mize 8, Kenna Wilcox 3, R. Hager 2, Kiersten Wilcox 2, M. Nelson 2, A. Light 2 – TOTALS 21 16-19 2 64
National Trail – J. Stiner 6, K. Johnson 6, L. Cordle 4, C. Osswald 3, O. Mason 2, H. Henderson 2 – TOTALS 6 2-9 3 23
3-POINTERS
Tri-Village 2 (S. DeLong 1, T. Mize 1)
National Trail 3 (C. Osswald 1, J. Stiner 1, K. Johnson 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
14-17-21-12 64 Tri-Village
02-07-06-08 23 National Trail
