NEW MADISON – Tri-Village girls basketball on a strong defensive effort and a career high 23 points from Taytum Gray defeated a good Oakwood team 50-35 Saturday afternoon.
Oakwood entered the contest at 10-4 in the Southwestern Buckeye League and would sport a front line with a couple of 6’ post players that would present its own challenges to a smaller guard-oriented Patriot team that has no one taller than 5-8 on their roster.
Tri-Village played to their strengths by pushing tempo and applying a lot of man pressure along with a variety of full and half court trap pressure to keep the game from being a possession type game only.
The Patriots started slowing but got a jump start from Taytum Gray who knocked down two triples and got a bucket from Sydnee DeLong and Adalynn Hines to take a first quarter lead 11-3.
While the defense did its job in the first quarter the Jills were able to take advantage of 2nd chance points in the second quarter scoring nine points.
Fortunately, Tri-Village Gray continued to add points with 7 in the second quarter and 13 in the first half. Delong added a triple, Raegan Hunt a fielder and an old-fashion three from Kenna Wilcox gave the PATS a 26-12 lead at the break.
Oakwood would pull down 14 offensive rebounds in the 1st half but shot just 15% on 5-of-34 shooting as the Patriots defense did its job.
The Jills picked up their offense in the third quarter going 5/13 for 38% and the Patriots would cool down a bit shooting 29% on 4/14 and the two teams deadlocked with 12 points each in the frame.
Again, it was Taytum Gray leading the way with 6 more points, Mize got in the board with a lay-up along with Hines and two free throws from Wilcox with the Patriots holding a 38-24 advantage heading into the final stanza.
Tri-Village would win the final frame 12-11 and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the line and 11-for-13 in the game. Tai Mize 8 of her 10 points in the quarter while Gray added four more points to give her a career high of 23 points to lead all scorers in the game.
Tri-Village coach Brad Gray was pleased with his team’s defensive effort in holding Oakwood to just 35 points a team who came in averaging 57 a game.
“I thought our kids played pretty well, I’m really pleased with our defensive performance. I thought we did a great job on #23 (Caroline Roelle)(17ppg) she had been scoring the ball well. I don’t know what she finished with (7) but whatever she finished with they were hard earned points. She got seven,” Gray stated.
“We also battled with the big girls, and everybody knows that’s been a weakness, not because we’re physically weak, because we’re short so defending in the post is kind of hard for us. But I thought our kids really battles and made it hard on the Connor girl today and she was getting banged around in there pretty good,” Gray added.
Gray was also pleased with his freshman Taytum Gray who also happens to be his daughter as she played more of a complete game showing versatility rather than just a stand still shooter.
“She’d been struggling shooting a little bit and you know the thing with Tay, I think varsity basketball, took her a while to get accustomed where she was wanting to stand and live on the three-point line, and that’s not who she is as a player. She can make a few but, you know, really getting out and running and not being afraid to go in there, even though she’s undersized and attacking and scoring in the paint, those are some things that she’s capable of doing, and she kind of got away from that. But I thought today she had a really good game, carried us a little bit there in the first half, and then our other kids kind of joined her as the game went on,” Gray praised.
The win improved Tri-Village record to 13-2 overall and they will host Franklin Monroe in league action on Thursday then has a big road game on Saturday at Minster.
Box Score
Score by Quarters
03 … 09 … 12 … 11 – 35 Oakwood
11 … 15 … 12 … 12 – 50 Tri-Village
Team Scoring
OAK – Grant 0-1-2/2 – 4, Romer 0-1-1/2 – 3, Bryant 1-1-1/2 – 6, Connor 0-4-4/5 – 12, Roell 1-1-1-2/2 – 7, Murphy 0-1-1/2 – 3, Totals 2-9-11 – 35
TV – DeLong 1-1-0/0 – 5, Gray 4-4-3/4 – 23, Mize 0-3-4/4 – 10, Hunt 0-1-0/0 – 2, Wilcox 0-1-3/3 – 5, 0-2-1/2 – 5, Totals 5-12-11/13 – 50
