
NEW MADISON – Tri-Village shook off a sluggish start in the first half and came out firing in the second half to pull away from Coldwater for a 60-42 non-conference win.
“I thought we were really sluggish out of the gate, whether that’s from the amount of energy we expended the other day, (loss to Chaminade Julienne) I don’t know,” Tri-Village coach Brad Gray stated.
“Regardless of what it was, it can’t happen. We got to be ready to play. We’re just not good enough to take minutes, let alone quarters off. And I thought we took a couple quarters off early defensively,” Gray added.
The Cavaliers would hold a 6-5 lead in opening frame … but Tai Mize connected on a triple and a fielder to close out the period with the Patriots in front 10-6.

Offensively Tri-Village couldn’t get going missing three-point blank lay-up that allowed the Cavaliers to regain the lead 13-12 midway in the 2nd quarter.
Alexis Light finally converted a lay-up off a sweet feed from Mize … but it soon turned into the Adalynn Hines show as the junior guard who was cold from the outside early was determined to get to the rim.
She would score on three straight possession the last one taking the ball the full length of the court and drawing the harm for two free throws. Hines scored 9 of her eleven first half points in the period and was the shot in the arm the team needed to take a 21-15 lead at the break.
The third quarter turned into the Kenna Wilcox show as the sophomore forward came out firing with a triple from the right corner, followed by a left-handed lay-up. She was then fouled on a three-point attempt and promptly sank all three to push the lead to 34-22.

Wilcox did all her scoring for the game in the frame tallying 13 of the 15 Patriots points for a 39-26 advantage heading into the final stanza.
Tri-Village scored 21 points in the fourth with Hines heating up again scoring 13 of her game high 26 points in the game. Tai Mize had 6 of her 17 points in the frame as well.

But the PATS gave up some easy buckets in the frame with Coldwater scoring 16 points and was a point of concern for coach Brad Gray after the game.
“We have got to be better on defense in the half court. I thought our full court defense, provided some things for us, but we’re losing people in half court and it’s a lack of communication. I don’t think it’s that we’re not capable. I think it’s just we don’t talk, and we lose sight of people, and we got to be better about that. You know, as coaches, we got to be better in practice about demanding communication on the defensive end. I think we’ve had some slippage and that’s my fault. And we’re going to get better. I promise you, they’re going to talk a lot more when you see them on Saturday,” Gray explained.
Despite that coach Gray was pleased with the team’s response in the 2nd half especially on the offensive end.
“I thought we came out in the second half and looked like a much better basketball team. Offensively early we missed some easy things, and in the second half we cleaned some of that up,” Gray said.
“I thought we were a little bit more focused, made some good decisions. You know, Tai, and Adeline are tough matchups. I don’t care who we’re playing, they’re going be tough matchups and they will get by defenders and when they can do we can get the ball to Kenna for open looks, and she is shooting the ball extremely well,” Gray added.
“When those three are playing like that, as you’ve seen in the last few games, they’re a three headed monster and pretty difficult for a lot of teams to deal with,” Gray praised.
Although coach Gray is pleased with Wilcox scoring … he would like to see if happen quicker in the game and the energy she provides as well to get the team off to a good start.
“We really need Kenna to be really good out of the gate. I don’t know what it is that lights her fire, but we got to figure it out earlier. We can’t keep figuring it out at halftime. It’s got to be figured out earlier, because when she comes ready to go, you know, she’s a headache for people, and I don’t think she realizes it, she is kind of our juice that I think the rest of our team feeds off her energy,”
“We’re trying to coach her really hard. I think she’s getting better about accepting that coaching,” Gray quipped.
The Patriots are going to need everyone playing well later this week as when they take on Ansonia.
“Ansonia is dangerous. They’re young, freshmen and sophomores who have had a lot of success and definitely are an up-and-coming team. I think Coach Custenborder and his mom do a really good job over there, they bring that Versailles mentality into Ansonia and drill that into the basketball program and those kids are starting to believe in themselves. It’s definitely not going to be easy, and our kids have to be ready to play against them and I’m sure they will be using this game on Saturday as a measuring stick game for their program and we have to be ready to match that intensity,” Gray concluded.
Tri-Village was led in scoring by Adelynn Hines with 26, Tai Mize 17, Kenna Wilcox 13, Kaley Brandon and Alexa Light each had 2 points in the 60-42 win.
The Patriots improve to 8-3 overall, 4-1 in the WOAC and a game behind the 5-0 Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks.
It will be a big first week in the new year for the conference with Mississinawa Valley hosting 4-1 Ansonia Thursday night and then going to 3-1 Arcanum on Saturday.
