TROTWOOD – The Tri-Village girls basketball team let a 10-point lead slip away in the OHSAA DV Tournament game against Brookville. The Blue Devils made the plays needed down the stretch for a 40-36 win to advance to just their second-ever District Final game.
On paper Brookville (16-7) and Tri-Village (18-5) appeared to be somewhat even statistically coming into the game. Brookville averaged 52 ppg on offense and gave up 48, while the Patriots averaged 54 ppg on offense and gave up just 30 a game.
The Blue Devils feature a couple of freshman guards Jolie Gudorf, one of the leading scorers in the Dayton area at 19.7 ppg and Kinley Kummer at 9.7 ppg and forward Meghan Wuebfker at 9.0 ppg.
Tri-Village countered with junior guards Adalynn Hines at 17 ppg, Tai Mize at 12.1 ppg and sophomore forward Kenna Wilcox at 12.4 ppg.
The Patriots jumped ahead in the first quarter on seven points from Wilcox and five from Mize for a 12-6 lead.
Tri-Village came out in a triangle two defense on Gudorf and Kummer, with Hines and Mize drawing the assignment of slowing down Gudorf and Kummer.
That worked in the first quarter, with Gudorf only scoring three points and Kummer held in check.
But in the second quarter, Hines picked up her second foul and would spend some time on the pine.
The Patriot’s defense was still good enough to hold the Devils to just five points, all by Gudorf, while generating nine points to take a 21-11 lead at the break.
Tai Mize led the Patriots at the break with nine points and Kenna Wilcox had seven and things were looking good for Tri-Village.
Holes in the defensive shield developed and it only took a few seconds to expose as Jolie Gudorf fired in a triple from 25’ just seconds into the third quarter.
She would break free enough to contribute eight points; Kinley Kummer finally got on the board, adding four.
Tri-Village offense struggled with just eight points, but they still led 29-26 heading into the final frame.
The Patriots went ice cold in the fourth quarter, they had good looks from range and drives to the hoop but were unable to convert allowing the Blue Devils to grab the lead 31-29 at the six-minute mark.
Wilcox tied it on a drive off the baseline for a lay-up … but the Devils responded with a triple from senior Grace Taylor to go back up 34-31.
Another bucket from Wilcox got the PATS to within a point, only to see Gudorf make two free throws to push the lead back to three, 36-33. Gudorf scored 25 points in the game.
Mize led the Patriots in scoring with 17 points answered by ringing the bell from deep to tie the game at 36. with two minutes to play.
Tri-Village worked hard on defense. forcing two consecutive Devil timeouts by trapping the offensive player and got an important stop to give them a chance to regain the lead.
The Patriots’ Alexa Light got an open look from the corner, but the shot ended up only traveling halfway to the basket on what appeared to be a foul on her shooting arm.
Tri-Village fouled Gudorf on the change of possession and the freshman stroked both to go in front 38-36 at a critical time in the game.
Still, the Patriots had opportunities to tie the game but missed multiple shots in the paint and were again forced to foul, as Brookville extended their lead to 39-36. One more opportunity to tie came up short, and the Blue Devils made 1-of-2 free throws to ice the game at 40-36.
After the game, Tri-Village coach Brad Gray was trying to come to grips with the way the Patriots finished the game.
“I don’t have a whole lot of words. This is one that, unfortunately, ends with me. We’ve seen this team in other games during the year where we said we need to fix things and get better,” coach Gray said.
“Tonight, it costs us. Mentally, we’ve got to be a lot tougher than we were tonight. Physical toughness is one thing; I think the mental toughness part is what really killed us tonight,” Gray added.
“We got to quit feeling sorry for ourselves. We got a bunch of kids that like to feel sorry for themselves. You can’t be a winner if you’re always complaining,” Gray would say after the game.
Fresh off a disappointing loss of this magnitude, it’s tough to view the success that was achieved during the course of the year and not to discount the loss because they will have to deal with it going forward … but it’s also important to evaluate the season overall.
To start the year, no one had Tri-Village as a league contender, and many wondered if they would even win half their games, considering the tough non-conference schedule Coach Gray puts together for the team.
Everyone knows the story of losing a two-year 6’3” center who moved out of district and a two-year starting guard Sydnee DeLong to an ACL injury along with the graduation of Bella Black. Those three players alone accounted for 33 ppg of offense and 17 rpg.
Without Delong and a 6’3” center returning to the lineup, the Patriots countered by featuring two returning junior guards Adalynn Hines and Tai Mize along with sophomore forward Kenna Wilcox and the trio combined for 41 points of total offense.
Both Hines and Mize would be 1st team all-conference, Wilcox 2nd team and Mylee Bierly was a special mention All-WOAC.
Tri-Village got great contributions from Alexa Light and Mylee Bierly who didn’t play last year. Both of them had a highlight moment in big games that was key to a Patriot win.
Playing undersized with no one over 5’6”, TV lost the rebounding war most nights but would make up for it in steals and scoring. They notched some big wins during the season that included: Garfield Heights Trinity, Bellefontaine, Arcanum, Coldwater, Minster, Versailles and Sidney to name a few.
Too often we gauge a team’s success by how far they go in the tournament and rightfully so as Patriot Nation has come to experience much success in the postseason over the last 15 years.
But we should also value the success a team has in their conference as well and for a team who wasn’t given much of a chance they can take pride in winning a league championship.
The Patriots have won the title every year since the Western Ohio Athletic Conference began, now in its 4th year.
Tri-Village ends the season with an 18-6 overall record and 10-1 in the WOAC.
The story for the 2024-25 Lady Patriots is over as we say goodbye to senior Casey Lewis and Allie Nuse.
Losing a tough game against Brookville and coming up short of getting to the District Championship game doesn’t feel good, and sometimes those losses remain with you longer than big wins … but those losses can make or break you, and teams who learn from it will always come out better.
“It’s going to hurt eight months or whatever time until we get started again. Hopefully, it will fuel us going into next year with pretty much everybody coming back,” Gray concluded.
For the 2025-26 Lady Patriots, know this: Patriot Nation supports you, learn from this experience and put in the work, only you can control what story we write about next year, and we believe it can be really special.
