Lady Patriots get come from behind win over Arcanum

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Tri-Village bench reacts after taking lead for first time with Arcanum at start of the 4th qtr. The Patriots went on to win 50-38.  (Dale Barger photo)

NEW MADISON – The Arcanum girls basketball team stymied Tri-Village in the first half with their 1-3-1 defense to take a 25-15 lead at the break.  The PATS closed the gap to one 31-30 going into the 4th quarter and then erupted for 20 points for a comeback 50-38 WOAC win over the Trojans.

With the game tied at 4-4, Arcanum got a triple from junior Caroline Long, a layup from senior Alexis Gibbons, followed by another three from sophomore Claire Hein to go up 12-4, prompting TV to call a timeout.

The Patriots, Tai Mize, broke the 8-point run with a trey, and both teams would add three more points to end the 1st quarter with the Trojans leading 15-10.

Alexis Gibbons was a big part of why the Trojans got off to a good start scoring 9 points in the first quarter.  (Dale Barger photo)

Alexis Gibbons was the juice for Arcanum on offense with 9 points in the quarter.  Gibbons would add 3 more in the 2nd quarter and had 12 by the end of the 1st half.

Arcanum’s defense continued to give the Patriots fits, containing them to a half-court game and working hard for shots with many not falling, and they would take a 25-15 lead into the locker room at the half.

Tri-Village coach Brad Gray was disappointed with the first-half play but gave some credit to Arcanum for that.

“Obviously it wasn’t our best offensive effort in the first half, give credit to Arcanum coming out in the 1-3-1 zone. That’s something we haven’t seen yet this year, and it definitely stifled us for a while to go along with not being able to rebound the basketball,” Gray stated.

Arcanum Freshman Gabriella Wooten was one of the reasons Arcanum was able to out-rebound the Patriots in the first half.  (Dale Barger photo)

It would take the entire 3rd quarter for Tri-Village to close the gap on Arcanum.  The Patriots’s defense was more successful, containing Gibbons, holding her to zero points and giving up just six in the period.

Meanwhile, the Patriots matched their entire first-half output, scoring 15 points and connecting on 3 triples.  Adalynn Hines scored 10 points and Alexa Light added five for TV to close the gap to 32-31.

Adalynn Hines would come alive in the 2nd half and ended the game with 18 points to lead all scorers in the game.  (Dale Barger photo)

The Patriots took the lead for the first time at the start of the final stanza with a fielder inside from Kenna Wilcox.  Gibbons regained the lead with her first points in the 2nd half on two free throws to go up 33-32.

But Wilcox struck again from the left corner with a trey to jump ahead 35-33.

Adalynn Hines added a lay-up, and Wilcox drained another long one at 4:59 with the Lady Patriots leading 40-35 and Arcanum need a timeout to talk things over.

Kenna Wilcox gave TV the lead to start 4th quarter & followed it up with 2 triples to give them control of the game.  (Dale Barger photo)

Tri-Village would take advantage of the lead and spread the floor to get Arcanum out of the 1-3-1 zone and then force them to gamble or foul to get the ball.

Tai Mize immediately took advantage in the spread-out floor getting a lay-up and the foul for a 3-point play going up 42-36.

Then a foul deemed flagrant turned into four free throws and a 46-36 lead putting the game out of reach with the Patriots closing out the 50-38 win.

Once the Patriots got control late, point guard Tai Mize was able to score an and-one on this layup and made all five free throws in the fourth quarter.  (Dale Barger photo)

After the game Tri-Village basketball coach Brad Gray was pleased with the way his team responded in the second half and talked about trusting that Arcanum would start missing shots and as long as they rebounded the ball well they would have opportunities.

“I thought we did a lot better in 2nd half getting clean rebounds that allowed us to get some transition buckets,” Gray said.

“We also made a little bit of an adjustment how we were going to play against the 1-3-1 zone. It worked out, kind of got them out of the zone, where they went man, and we kind of got whatever we wanted, which is, helpful. I mean, if we can get teams out of zones then we are able to execute our stuff,” Gray added.

Arcanum coach Abbey Moore agreed rebounding made a difference, especially as the Patriots started to swing things in their favor in the 2nd half.

“Unfortunately, the momentum started to turn when we couldn’t get the defensive boards at the end of the second quarter. And that’s huge, I think that’s because we were getting fatigued with how hard we were going on our defensive rotations. So, we got to learn how to rebound even when we’re tired and not let that momentum swing,” Moore explained.

“We came out and executed our game plan and came out with the energy and focus, but fatigue set in, and buckets weren’t falling in the second half, which let them cut into our lead and our confidence went downhill,” Moore concluded.

Tri-Village was led by Adalynn Hines 18 points, Kenna Wilcox 12, and Tai Mize had 10.

Arcanum was led by Alexis Gibbons 16 points, Caroline Long 9 and Claire Hein had 8.

The Trojans fell to 4-3 overall, 3-1 in the WOAC, while the Patriots improved to 7-2, 4-1 in the league.

Arcanum will play Houston on Friday, December 27th, at 3 pm in the Covington Holiday Tournament.

Tri-Village will host Chaminade Julienne on Saturday, December 28th, at 1 pm.

Box Scores:

Score By Quarter:

Arc: 15 … 10 … 06 … 07 – 38
TV:   10 … 05 … 15 … 20 – 50

ARCANUM: Gibbons 0-4-8/10 – 16, Hein 1-2-1/2 – 8, Long 1-2-2/2 – 9, Noe 1-0-0/0 – 3,
Wooten 0-1-0/0 – 2, Totals 3-9-11/14 – 38

TRI-VILLAGE: Mize 1-1-5/5 – 10, Bierly 0-1-0/0 – 2, Besecker 0-0-1/2 – 1, Wilcox 2-1-4/4 – 12, Light 1-2-0/0 – 7, Hines 3-4-1/4 – 18, Totals 7-9-12/16 – 50

Arcanum coach Abbey Moore talks over strategy in a timeout.  The Lady Trojans stymied the Patriots in the 1st half .. but ran out of steam late in the game.  (Dale Barger photo)