NEW MADISON – The Tri-Village Patriots defeated the National Trail Blazers 85-39 in Tuesday night WOAC play at the PAC, home of the Patriots.
Tri-Village took the opening quarter by a 16-10 score led by Trey Sagester’s eight points including his first of five 3-pointers on the night.
Trail brought its “A” game to the PAC to open second-quarter play outscoring the home team 12-4 in the opening three and a half minutes taking a 22-20 lead as the Patriots struggled to get a shot to fall.
“We did not play with a lot of urgency, especially in that first half,” Sagester stated. “Credit National Trail, they played hard, they played inspired and we missed a few shots. That affected us a little bit on the defensive end with our intensity.”
Tri-Village battled back with a 14-1 scoring run to lead 34-23 with the teams heading to the halftime break. Braden Keating paced the Patriots with eight second-quarter points while Sagester struggled on the offensive end going scoreless in the second.
A spirited Patriots halftime locker room paid big dividends as Tri-Village equaled its first-half output logging 34 third-quarter points led by 15 Sagester points including three treys, two 2-point buckets, and 2-2 at the charity stripe. Keating added seven points including a triple, Wehr 4 points, and Griffin Richards, Noah Finkbine, Kaysn Hollinger, and Dom Black each with a basket to round out third-quarter Patriots scoring.
“Our kids have to be ready to play every time we step on the floor,” Coach Sagester said. “We had a good chat at halftime and we responded well.”
“Our defensive integrity got much better in the third quarter,” added Sagester. “That created some nice baskets for us and got us in the flow of the game the third quarter. We shared it well.”
Sagester drained his fifth triple of the night to open fourth quarter scoring for a 71-34 advantage with the Patriots starters going to the bench midway through the final quarter. Dom Black scored six fourth-quarter points leading the Patriots to a 17-5 fourth-period and a running clock to close out the conference matchup.
“Our effort sometimes in the first half was lackluster,” Sagester said. “We were able to respond in the third quarter. Braden (Keating) can make shots, Trey (Sagester) can make shots, Tanner (Printz) can make shots – we have some shot-makers.”
“Kaysn Hollinger gave us good minutes tonight, Dom Black has been giving us good minutes, Jayden Hollinger has been giving us very good minutes. He’s been ill, today is his first day back. Noah Finkbine is a sparkplug and Reed Wehr – Reed makes plays for us. All our guys contributed tonight.”
“It’s a marathon not a sprint,” added Sagester. “We’re 17-1 and if you would have told me that I would have taken it every time. We have to keep getting better. We have some games ahead of us. We’re going to have to make shots, it’s no secret. I think we will, we have before and I think our kids will rise to the occasion.”
Sagester led Tri-Village and all scorers with a game-high 26 points.
BOXSCORE:
TRI-VILLAGE – T. Sagester 26, B. Keating 16, R. Wehr 11, D. Black 8, N. Finkbine 6, K. Hollinger 6, G. Richards 5, J. Hollinger 4, T. Printz 3 – 24 10-15 9 85
NATIONAL TRAIL – Kellen Laird 19, T. Lesh 8, L. Smith 5, T.Blevins 4, E. Osswald 3 – TOTALS 5 8-16 7 39
3-POINTERS
Tri-Village 9 (T. Sagester 5, B. Keating 2, T. Printz 1, K. Hollinger 1)
National Trail 7 (Kellen Laird 4, T. Lesh 2, E. Osswald 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-18-34-17 85 Tri-Village
10-13-11-05 39 National Trail
