Patriots Attack Dixie and Roll to 4th Win in a Row

Bob Moore for TVPatriots.com

New Madison - After a 3 game skid that started at the FM Holiday Tournament the Patriots needed a formula to break out of the funk. They also needed a solution to breakdown the barrage of triangle and 2 defenses plotted against their two main guns, Drew Moore and Cody Gunckel. Solution: attack and get to the free throw line and spread the wealth to get other players involved in the offense. Outcome: 4^th win in a row with the latest victim being the Greyhounds of Dixie; 60 – 50.

Coach Josh Sagester summed up the game in his first post game comment; “I thought handling the triangle and 2 as a team was the key tonight. We’ve seen so many boxes (and ones) and triangles (and two) that the key was having (Evan) Catron, (Matt) Miller and (Tyler) Garland stepping up offensively at the beginning"

After being down 4 – 2, Catron busted a trey to that gave TV a lead that they never relinquished. After Catron drained his second 3 to give TV a 20 – 13 lead, the combo of Catron, Miller and Garland netted 13 of the Pats first 20 points and forced Dixie to respect the ‘triangle’ in their triangle and 2 defense.

The result of the balanced scoring gave Gunckel some daylight to expose an opening in the Greyhound defense. Gunckel scored 9 points of his 17 points in the second quarter that gave TV some breathing room at the break. Gunckel crashed the boards, busted a 3 and ended the half with a heads up tip in at the buzzer that gave TV a 31-19 advantage at the half.

The second half started in the same fashion with Miller cashing in with a short range jumper from a nice kick out pass from Catron. After Miller connected with another deuce, Tyler Garland received a nice pass from Gunckel to end his perfect 2 for 2 from the field with a jumper in the paint. After Miller connected with a free throw to complete the first 7 points of the second half, that opened up Drew Moore. Moore drained a trey and ended the half with another 2 as TV ended the 3^rd quarter with 43 – 32 lead.

The Pats balanced scoring at the beginning of the half softened up the Dixie defense that put Moore and Gunckel into the attack mode in the 4^th quarter. TV only connected on 2 of 7 from the field in the final stanza, but Moore and Gunckel were able to create opportunities at the charity stripe and between the two they went 11 for 13 down the stretch that kept the game at a comfortable 10 point margin.

On defense the Pats played a 2 – 3 zone for the entire game. The Greyhounds were without their leading scorer, TVS transfer Ryan Innis, due to an ankle injury, but Coach Josh Sagester used the zone for several reasons. “They were bigger, stronger and I knew we’d have trouble on the glass (rebounding) and that is one reason why we played the zone. I thought if we over exposed ourselves we were going to have some problems with their athleticism, but I thought we had a pretty good hold on the zone most of the evening.”

“I thought Drew and Cody handled themselves well tonight” noted Sagester on his 20 PPG scorers. “I thought they made good decisions with the basketball as it has to get frustrating seeing the triangles and boxes night after night. I can only think of a couple of times where I thought we forced the ball and they still ended up with 21 and 17 on the night.”

“Attacking the defense and getting 29 attempts at the free throw line was a key in our success tonight. During that losing streak we were not getting to the foul line as much as the other team and during these last 4 games it has been completely the opposite.”

“I’m proud of our guys” concluded Sagester. If anybody would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would be 12 and 5 at this point of the season and couple of games away from winning a league title; I would have taken it. We got two of the next 3 league games at home and we control our own destiny. I keep telling the guys keep working hard and good things will happen.”

Scoring by quarters

Dixie….11…19…32…50

TV…….15…31…43…60

Dixie

Hauser – 2

Moore – 14

Prater – 2

Isaacs – 6

Falldorf – 2

Worley – 10

Hayes – 10

Smiley – 2

Petitt – 2

FG % 39.5 (17/43) FT% 72 (13/18)

3 PT Goals – 3: Moore 2, Worley (3/16 – 18.7%)

Tri-Village

Moore – 21

Gunckel – 17

Miller – 9

Catron – 8

Garland – 4

Morris – 1

Barger - 0

Pipenger – 0

Dill – 0

FG % 48.6 (18/37) FT% 65.5 (19/29)

3 PT Goals – 5: Moore 2, Catron 2, Gunckel (5/12 – 41.6%)