Trey Segester took a while to ignite, but fired up this three-pointer in the fourth quarter to ‘close’ the deal on win #22 of the season. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
It took them three and a half quarters to play in the manner of Tri-Village, but the Division VI Patriots powered by Vandalia Butler in the fourth quarter to complete the regular season without a loss.
Vandalia, OH – Tri-Village coach Josh Sagester admitted afterwards that finishing the regular season without a defeat on your record is something special.
“And I didn’t make it easy for us, either,” he admitted Tuesday night in Vandalia, following his Patriots’ 46-32 win over Vandalia Butler to complete their 22-0 gauntlet.
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“What a season,” Sagester emphasized. “Because we were fortunate to beat so many good teams. I didn’t put us in a very good position with the schedule.”
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To his point, Sagester outdid himself in scheduling his talented Patriots against as many bigger schools as possible to better prepare them for the post-season. He wanted them to see size, skill, style…anything and everything that they might see starting in ten days when they open the Division VI district round of the OHSAA tournament against Houston, from the Shelby County League.
So it was only apropos that Division VI Tri-Village should conclude the gauntlet against Division III Butler, who entered the game with a 15-5 record, in the thick of the Miami Valley League Miami Division (North), and a #3 seed in the Division III district opening round on February 27, against Chaminade.
It’s never easy to win a title of any kind, and that’s how it worked out against Andy Holderman’s Aviators, who slowed pace, and did as much as they could to muzzle the Patriots’ explosive offense, holding them to beneath 40% for the first three quarters of the game.
Not their usually efficient self shooting from the perimeter, center Dom Black picked up the slack with 14 points from the paint.
“We didn’t get that many possessions,” echoed Sagester, speaking of their issues afterwards. “And how hard is it for a high school team to play three good programs like we finished with in a span of five days (Preble Shawnee, Fort Recovery, and Butler)?
Mental fatigue?
There’s no question that the Patriots had to overcome that on Saturday night, following an emotional conference win the night before against Preble.
But Tuesday there was also the hint of nerves, knowing no doubt that less than a dozen schools in all of OHSAA basketball would finish the regular season with a perfect record. Credit Butler for doing their part, yes. But this was not the same Tri-Village that roared through teams like Jonathan Alder, Kettering Fairmont, Troy, Indian Hill, and Bishop Fenwick over the past two months.
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Tentative from the start, still the Patriots opened the first quarter on a 6-0 run to take the lead…only to surrender a 7-0 run immediately to Butler to close out the quarter. The Patriots led, 10-9.
The second quarter was an exact duplicate of the first. Trey Sagester, the Patriots go-to offensive weapon – the ‘closer’ in his dad the coach’s words – hit a three-pointer in the first half, but his shot was anything but confident. Instead, Sagester kept attracting attention away from center Dominic Black whom he kept feeding for points at the rim. Black would finish the game with 14 points, largely uncontested, and the exact margin of victory at the end – 46-32. Tri-Village went to the halftime locker room with a 20-18 lead.
The Patriots’ Griffin Richards rejects the shot attempt of Butler’s Toby Moore during Tuesday’s 44-32 win over the Aviators.
But if Butler’s defense and ability to slow the pace was having its impact on the Patriots, the Patriots were exacting their own brand of havoc on Butler’s ability to score. Held to just 18 before the half, Brecken Gray opened the third quarter with a three-pointer for Tri-Village to open a 25-19 lead, their biggest of the game. And that was it…the sum total of highlights for the third quarter. Tri-Village finished with 7 points for the quarter, while Butler had just 5. The game was 27-23 to start the fourth.
Credit Butler, of course, for finding the kryptonite to the Patriots’ offensive game, but Holderman’s offense could not figure a way to get the ball through the rim, themselves. They turned the ball over 16 times for the game, missed repeatedly when they did get near the rim…and actually never used their overall size advantage to do much inside the Tri-Village zone.
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Likewise, Tri-Village, a team that usually feasts on points in transition, would not score in transition until three minutes into the fourth quarter. And then it was Sagester who finally came around to ignite three consecutive layups in transition to open the Patriots lead to ten points. And on an ensuing possession he hit his second three-pointer of the second half to reach 11 points for the quarter and push the lead to 44-28 with two minutes left.
Not having it…Butler coach Andy Holderman makes his case for a call to official Garrett Mitchell.
They emptied the benches at that point, Butler scored their final four points in the final moments of the game, and the clock ran out on a 46-32 conclusion, and 22 games in a row.
Trey Sagester led all scorers with 18 points, including the 11-point burst in the fourth quarter that pushed them above 40% for the night, on a night when the Village people were an offensive shell of their normal lethality. It didn’t seem to faze Josh Sagester.
“He rose to the occasion in the fourth quarter,” smiled the coach, speaking of his son. “That’s why he’s the closer. He’s been around and he’s been through it. Tonight was something like his 90th win with the program.
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“But I couldn’t be happier with how we handled the season, and for how we’ve come through it to this point. 22 wins and we’re healthy.”
They’ll remember it for a long time, no doubt. Unbeaten just doesn’t happen that often. In fact, artificial intelligence cannot even tell you how many unbeaten teams there actually are in the state entering the tournament ten days from now.
What they might try to forget is how unlike themselves they looked in doing it. Not their best, but a win is a win.
“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” someone said as they walked out the door on the way to the bus back to Darke County.
Along with the fact that good teams have played through just about every obstacle imaginable at this point. It’s why you play all those bigger teams that presumably have more…as a test!
And no, Sagester didn’t mention anything about a grade for the season – just that he thrown them quite a curve.
22-0 says all you need to know.
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