NEW MADISON – The Arcanum Boys Basketball Team had the tempo they wanted and a lead 25-24 late in the third quarter. But Tri-Village was able to speed up the Trojans and make shots scoring 15 unanswered points from two-minute mark of the third to the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter to claim a 43-31 WOAC win.
Coming into the game the Patriots were averaging 72 points a game and Arcanum 50 points so the game plan for Arcanum coming in was to take as much time as needed for each possession and not allow Tri-Village to get the game up-tempo.
While Arcanum was successful holding the Patriots to just 10 first quarter points on triples from Noah Finkbine and Trey Sagester and a couple of fielders from Dom Black and Hayden Hunt. The Trojans were only able to muster 4 of their own on a triple from Matthew McCans and a free throw from Ben Hamilton.
However, Tri-Village center Dom Black would find himself in foul trouble picking up two early and he would sit the rest of the first half.
Arcanum stuck with the game plan and with Black out senior forward Cameron Ball went to work in the paint. Ball either scored at the rim or made free throws after being fouled and scored 8 of his team’s 10 second quarter points.
The Trojan defense slowed Tri-Village even more with Trey Sagester scoring the only points (7) for the Patriots who held onto a 17-14 lead at the break.
Arcanum continued to be comfortable playing with their pace and for the next six minutes they were able to force a tie and then take the lead 23-22 and 25-24 at 2:14 in the third quarter.
The Trojans got four points each from Ball and Ben Hamilton and a triple from Jace Mote.
Scoring for the Patriots again was provided by Trey Sagester who had 10 of their 12 points in the third. Dom Black had two free throws but played a limited role again fouling out of the game.
After Hamilton gave Arcanum their final lead 25-24 at 2:14, Sagester canned a short jumper and then a long step-back three to end the third with the Patriots up 29-25.
Clearly a more concentrated level of pressure was being applied by Tri-Village that started to cause some cracks in the patient execution and playing late into a possession that led to a few easier baskets for the Patriots.
A lay-up from Noah Finkbine to start the final frame and a triple from Sagester in the corner pushed the lead to 34-25 prompting an Arcanum timeout.
The drought for Arcanum continued and senior guard Carson Bedinghaus piled on for the Patriots with his triple and then a Brecken Gray fielder extended TV’s led to 39-25.
Jace Mote finally broke a seven-minute scoring drought at the free throw line, but the Patriots extended their lead to 42-26 for the largest lead of the game at the one-minute mark.
Arcanum’s Ball connected from beyond the arch and Ben Hamilton scored another bucket in the last minute, but the dry spell took its toll with the Patriots taking a 43-31 WOAC win.
Arcanum coach Kevin Brackman was pleased with his teams game plan and execution and broke it down on why they played a more deliberate style game.
“I’ll throw some numbers at you. Last year we played this same game, and they (Tri-Village) took 61 shots to our 32 and they’re shooting 64% from the floor. Two years ago, it was the same game, 55 shots to our to our 34 right? We felt like our best chance was to limit their offensive opportunities,” Brackman explained.
And for three quarters the Trojans were right where they needed to be and by games end they held TV to 37 shots to their 21.
Arcanum would only shoot 8-for-17 from the free throw line and had 20 turnovers, make a few more free throws and few less turnovers and a long dry spell on offense it might have been a different game.
But you also have to give credit to the Tri-Village, when they needed to change the tempo of the game they were able to ratchet up pressure and Arcanum sped up on offense.
I think we had it to a two-possession game going into the 4th quarter, we talked all week about being there and wanted to hit big shots. We established the post to make sure to be in the best position to do that. But we started to make some silly decisions where we settled early in possessions and against a team like Tri-Village that’s going to make a run, it cost us. On two quick possessions and they go down and hit back-to-back threes, and it went from being down four or five to 10 or 11, and that was the game,” Brackman said.
But I’m really proud of our guys we threw some new ideas and tonight proved we can sit down and guard and get stops because our defense really as much as our offense, kept us in there most of the game,” Brackman commented.
Tri-Village coach Josh Sagester gave credit to Arcanum and said they did what they had to do.
“They executed their game plan well tonight and he (Coach Brackman) had his team where they wanted to be. I know their plan was to take air out of the basketball and they did a good job with it. We’ve been there as a program. You got to do what gives your team the best chance to win and his kids did a good job, executed and played really hard,” Sagester stated.
They slowed us down and it came down to Trey, and he had a great night. The three he hit at the end of the third quarter and early fourth were kind of big,” Sagester stated.
Trey would lead all scorers in the game with 26 while Cameron Ball led Arcanum with 15.
Arcanum falls to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the WOAC and they will host Waynesfield Goshen Saturday night.
Tri-Village improves to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the league play. They will play Jonathan Alder at Columbus Convention Center on Monday night.
Box Score
Score by Quarters
ARC – 04 … 10 … 11 … 06 – 31
TV – 10 … 07 … 12 … 14 – 43
Team Scoring
ARC – J. Mote 1-0-1/2 – 4, McCans 1-0-0/0 3, Garno 0-1-0/0 – 2, Ball 1-4-4/9 – 15, B. Hamilton 0-2-3/5 – 7, Totals 3-7-8/17 – 31
TV – Black 0-1-2/3 – 4, Sagester 4-5-4/6 – 26, H. Hunt 0-1-0/0 2, G. Richards 0-0-1/2 – 1, N. Finkbine 1-1-0/0 – 5, B. Gray 1-0-0/0 – 2, C. Bedinghaus 1-0-0/0 – 3, Totals 6-9-7/11 – 43
