The Patriots’ Trey Sagester slips by a Troy defender for two of his 26 points in Tuesday’s non-conference win over the Trojans. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lee Woolery)
The Patriots went to Troy for another non-league test, got tested at times, and passed it behind 26 points from Trey Sagester.
Troy, OH – The countdown to perfection is at five.
When Tri-Village head coach Josh Sagester created an aggressive schedule this basketball season, he did it to prepare his team for the Division VI tournament. His strategy is working.
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But the Patriots can’t escape another goal that grows closer every time they play, that each opponent desperately wants to ruin: an undefeated regular season.
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After Tuesday night’s methodical, grind-it-out 52-42 win over Division II Troy, the Patriots are 17-0.
While unbeaten wasn’t on the list of preseason goals of winning the Western Ohio Athletic Conference title, winning at least 20 and cutting down tournament nets, when 22-0 is this close it starts to matter. Sagester knows the feeling. He coached the Patriots to unbeaten regular seasons in 2012-13, 2014-15 and 2020-21.
“I don’t know that it is something that they’re thinking too much about or am I,” Sagester said. “But I wouldn’t lie to you and tell you that’s not something we’d like to do.”
Senior Trey Sagester, who scored 26 points, understands that the next five games – so long as the Patriots don’t lose – will require some of their best basketball. The remaining schedule includes non-league home games against Bishop Fenwick (4-12 in the tough GCL-Coed), Fort Recovery (11-6) and at Vandalia Butler (13-3) and at home against Preble Shawnee (15-2) for the league title.
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“Obviously, undefeated is great, but we got to come and play these big non-league games and we’re everybody’s Super Bowl,” Trey Sagester said. “They want to be the ones to beat you every night. And you got to come ready to play.”
Tuesday’s hunter was Troy (9-9), a team missing 6-foot-5 starter Kardel Winfield in the paint and hungry to be the perfection breaker. And the Trojans brought everything they had, playing scrappy and disciplined defense.
Troy’s Malakyi Hall attacks the rim in the second half of Tuesday’s loss to Tri-Village.
“I thought we competed, I really did,” Troy coach Mark Hess said. “Our competitive nature this year has been a little more inconsistent at times than I would like. Yesterday we were really focused and detailed in practice, and I told our coaches we’re going to play well tomorrow. The kids were locked in and ready to go, and I thought we played that same way tonight.”
Troy played from behind after Tri-Village broke a 5-5 tie. But the Trojans didn’t go away easily. Down 19-11 early in the second quarter, Troy held the Patriots scoreless for almost five minutes and trailed 23-19 at halftime.
“They played a lot harder on the defensive end than what we’re used to seeing,” Trey Sagester said.
But sooner or later Tri-Village’s ability to score created comfortable leads. The Patriots expanded a 26-23 lead to 44-30 early in the fourth quarter with an 18-7 run. Troy got the lead down to 50-41 on Brady O’Leary’s 3-pointer with 1:25 to play, but that was the last of their big shots.
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Aiden Luis scored 13 points and Malakyi Hall scored 12 to lead the Trojans. But, especially without Winfield’s size and eight points a game, the Trojans continued to struggle to score consistently and hit the big shot in the big moment. They had little runs of two or three baskets in a row, but the big run never came.
“It’s tough sometimes to get something in the lane because we’re not really big,” Hess said. “Our goal is just to try to space guys out, get downhill, drive, draw, kick, hit that open shot.”
Troy’s Aiden Luis rises for one of his three first half three-pointers in Tuesday’s loss to Tri-Village.
While Troy missed opportunities to stay close, their defense gave them a chance. The Trojans knew Sagester can hit a defense all at once with run of baskets from well beyond the 3-point line to slithery drives to the rim. When he does the route is on.
“They run a lot of good stuff for him,” Hess said. “We just went with cues, where he was on the floor, and actions he wanted. He’s a player. He’s going to make shots.”
Sagester got two more than his average, but Troy made him work for it. They mostly stayed in front of him, took away his backdoor cuts and contested almost every shot. But as Sagester consistently does, he found room to make enough big shots, demoralize the defense with difficult shots and hand out four assists that created easy baskets for his teammates.
Foul trouble hampered Tri-Village’s offense. Dom Black, the Patriots’ 6-5, 290-pound center, picked up two quick fouls early in the second quarter. When he returned to the floor a few minutes later, he got his third on an illegal screen. An offensive foul at the start of the fourth quarter sent him to the bench again.
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The bench time held Black to six points, almost six below his average. But it also hampered the offense because much of what the Patriots run goes through his hands or off his screens.
“Dom was in foul trouble majority of the game, and that’s sometimes a complexion changer for us,” Josh Sagester said. “So we have to find other ways to manufacture.”
Outta’ my way…TV’s Trey Sagester creates space for himself, along with a foul, in Tuesday’s win over Troy.
In the end, it worked out because Sagester preferred a half-court game over the pace his team’s full-court pressure creates. That meant fewer possessions and fewer chances for Troy to get hot.
“I wanted to be solid on the road,” he said. “I didn’t want to create offense for them. Teams shoot better in their home gym, and I wanted to make them earn some baskets.”
So far no one has earned a victory against the Patriots. They are 9-0 in the WOAC with an average winning margin of 44 points. That’s why the toughen-them-up non-league schedule is so important.
The Patriots have signature wins over Jonathan Alder, Fairmont, Troy Christian, Indian Hill and now Troy.
“You’re getting everybody’s best punch, and with emotion and passion and all those things, our kids got to match it,” Josh Sagester said. “The word of the day for me was urgency. We were for a little bit. We got saddled with a couple fouls, and that changed a little bit for us, especially offensively. But a win’s a win.”
Seventeen and counting.
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