Tri-Village senior Trey Sagester drives on Indian Hill’s Jack Nolan. Sagester led the Patriots with 19 points. Nolan led the Braves with 13. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
The Patriots remained unbeaten, using a third-quarter run to take control and methodically shut down Cincinnati Indian Hill with four quarters of zone defense at Flyin’ To The Hoop.
Kettering, OH – Did you know unbeaten Tri-Village has yet to allow 50 points this season?
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Yes, the team that leans on 25 points a game from senior sharpshooter Trey Sagester, excels at scoring in transition and wins by an average of 35 points a game doesn’t come close to doing it all with offense.
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Monday night, in the finale at the 23rd Annual Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ To The Hoop event at Trent Arena, proved why defense matters for Josh Sagester’s team. The Patriots shot well below average yet emerged with a 53-35 victory over Cincinnati Indian Hill.
The Division VI Patriots (14-0) held the Division IV Braves (6-7) to 35% shooting, forced 13 turnovers in a mostly methodical game and won the rebounding battle 33-20, led by Sagester’s 10.
Griffin Richards played a steady game at the point and scoring 11 points.
“Defense wins championships, and if you can get stops on defense, that can lead to easy transition on offense,” Trey Sagester said. “We didn’t get many transitions tonight, but still continuing to get stops on defense will help get some more points on offense.”
Defense mattered in the first half while the Patriots – a 56% shooting team through the first 13 games – shot 36.4% and made only two 3-pointers on 11 tries. Getting stops and holding the Braves to 36.8% allowed for a 22-17 halftime lead.
“You’re not going to always play your best to win 14 games in a row, but you just got to find a way to win,” Josh Sagester said. “I thought our defensive game plan was pretty on point.”
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The Patriots are playing more zone than ever, keeping 6-foot-5 center Dom Black near the basket to protect the rim and stay out of foul trouble. The goal was to keep the taller and athletic Braves out of the lane and force tough shots, playing zone exclusively.
Brecken Gray scored 10 points, including a 3-pointer that helped spark an early third-quarter run.
“Depends on who you play and what their capabilities are,” Josh Sagester said. “Our zone’s been pretty good to us.”
The zone worked against everyone except guard Jack Nolan, who made four of seven 3-pointers and scored 13 points. Otherwise, the Braves struggled and finished the night shooting 35%.
“We take pride in it,” Trey Sagester said of the defense that allows an average of 34 points a game. “The less points they score, even if it’s going to be hard for us to score on offense, we can score more than they can if we hold them to the low 30s.”
Josh Sagester doesn’t have difficulty getting his team to listen about the importance of defense. His team is experienced and has been around him for several years growing up with his son.
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“Our kids are doing a pretty good job of listening and understanding what we’re trying to get done from game to game, and understanding what other kids can and can’t do,” he said. “We’re trying to take away their strengths and make them beat us in another way.”
Tri-Village center Dom Black made all three of his shots near the basket and scored seven points.
While shooting and scoring consistency wasn’t a thing for either team, the Patriots did manage a couple game-deciding spurts. The most important came at the start of the second half. Brecken Gray and Sagester hit 3-pointers to start the half and spark a 13-3 run to build a 35-20 lead. And the Braves never had a run in them.
“I don’t know that this is a great shooting environment or venue,” Josh Sagester said. “And they did some things to probably bother us with their length, and their athleticism, and their physicality. We didn’t get a lot of easy baskets today, but I thought we hit some timely shots, especially early in that third quarter to give us some cushion.”
No one felt the frustration of shots not falling more than Trey Sagester. He made 6 of 20 shots, only 2 of 9 from 3-point range, to score 19 points, finishing below 20 for only the third time this season. But as an experienced coach’s son, he knew how to respond.
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“Obviously, got to get in the gym more,” Trey Sagester said. “That’ll be first thing we’ll do tomorrow morning. But just finding other ways to affect winning, whether that’s making passes, finding the open man, getting rebounds in our zone, or just doing what it takes to get the job done.”
Tri-Village’s Hayden Hunt and Indian Hill’s Devlin Daniel go after a loose ball on a night when the Patriots won possession of most of the 50-50 balls.
Josh Sagester, of course, would like to see his best scorer more on par with his 54% shooting and 39% 3-point accuracy, but he knows what to expect when more shots are hitting the rim than the net.
“He cleaned them pretty much for us today,” Josh Sagester said of Trey’s rebounding. “So I thought he did a lot of things. It wasn’t one of his best shooting nights, but he just commands a lot of attention. That opens it up for some of our other guys, which I thought, again, hit some timely shots.”
Flow was a difficult thing for either team to attain. The Patriots’ zone created long and patient possessions for the Braves. And the Braves’ size created some rushed shots and a look of impatience at times in the Patriots, who also got 11 points from Griffin Richards and 10 from Gray.
Tri-Village’s Noah Finkbine puts up a shot over Indian Hill’s Devlin Daniel.
“I’d like to play in more transition,” Josh Sagester said. “And tonight was limited possessions because we played zone, and they moved the ball. So we didn’t get a ton of offensive possessions. I knew this game was going to be a little bit more low scoring because of that.”
These level of games are good for the Patriots as tournament time approaches. They haven’t been seriously challenged in seven Western Ohio Athletic Conference games, winning by an average of 40 points.
That’s why remaining nonleague games at Vandalia Butler and Troy and home against Bishop Fenwick are so important to prepare them for difficult challenges that lurk deep in the tournament.
“We got to continue to get better every day at practice and continue to do little things, whether that’s listening to the scouting report or just getting stops on defense every day,” Trey Sagester said.
The meeting of those goals starts with some early Tuesday morning shooting.
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