Tri-Village’s offense and Sydnee DeLong were tied up often by Lindi Carlier and Fayetteville-Perry in the Patriots’ Division VI district loss Saturday. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
Fayetteville-Perry’s runs of 10-0, 9-0 and 9-0 earned the Rockets their first district title since 2014. Tri-Village couldn’t shoot its way out of a rebounding disparity, and the Patriots know, even at 21-5, they missed their mark.
Monroe, OH – Tri-Village junior Kenna Wilcox held a Division VI district runner-up trophy while watching Fayetteville-Perry receive its district title awards. She was the third or fourth player to hold it. The others expressed little interest in it, and quickly passed it on. Wilcox likewise asked a few teammates if they wanted to hold it, and found no takers. So she set it on the floor.
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The Lady Patriots weren’t being sour or sore losers after a 49-31 defeat. They stood on the court and clapped for the victorious Fayetteville Rockets. But they know Tri-Village is a special place with a special standard.
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“This isn’t what we strive for,” head coach Brad Gray said. “I just told the kids that the unfortunate thing about having the expectations we have is days like today. But the good thing is that the reason we’re able to have the success that we do is because of the expectations. It’s a double-edged sword because days like today don’t feel good.”
They’ve now exited the tournament without a district title for three consecutive seasons, their last success coming in the 2023 state championship campaign.
“We want to win conference championships and district titles, and we didn’t do that,” Gray said. “But I told the kids there are a ton of schools in Ohio that would love to have 20 wins. … Hopefully our kids can find a way to feel like this was a good year. Because all in all, it’s still a pretty good year.”
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Height, or the lack of it, played a huge role in the end of the Pats’ postseason. That, and a hot and cold day shooting the three, which normally overcomes the height disparity for their five-out offense.
“Credit to Fayetteville,” Gray said. “They’ve won 23 games for a reason, and a lot of our struggles today are because of what they did.”
Fayetteville rebounded seven of its first 10 misses to cook up a 13-0 run in the first quarter.
Tri-Village’s Kenna Wilcox dodges Christina Murphy in pursuit of some highly elusive points in the paint. Wilcox finished with 11 points.
“That’s been our Achilles’ heel all year,” Gray said. “When we don’t play well, it’s usually because we’re not able to rebound. It got us today.”
Senior guard Tai Mize drilled a three on the Pats’ first possession, but they didn’t hit again from deep in the first or fourth quarters, despite attempting more threes than twos.
The Rockets snapped a streak much longer than Tri-Village’s three-year drought by cutting down a net for the first time since 2014.
“A district title means everything,” Fayetteville head coach Tory Rummel said. “And I’m trying not to cry while I say that. … We’ve been fighting and looking for this for the last four years. So to see it come to fruition is so magical for these girls.”
The Lady Rockets advance to Wednesday’s regional semifinals at Springfield High School against West Liberty-Salem. The winner will face the winner of St. Henry and Minster in Saturday’s 2 p.m. final for a trip to state at UD Arena.
“We’re ready,” Rummel said. “These girls are not done; I can feel it. So we’re gonna show up and give them everything we’ve got.”
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Christina Murphy led Fayetteville with 15 points. Aubrey Barber scored 14, and Cara Rummel added 12. That trio of juniors usually leads the scorebook in some order for the Rockets’ equal-opportunity offense. Despite leading the Southern Hills Athletic Conference in team scoring, none of them ranked top 10 in individual scoring.
“Our chemistry really tied us together,” Murphy said. “It makes us find those extra passes and extra looks which really opens things up.”
Fayetteville’s tough defense kept Tri-Village senior Adalynn Hines off the scoreboard.
The variety of scorers, rebounders and ball handlers propelled runs of 10-0, 9-0 and 9-0 that shaped the district final.
Offensive rebounds catalyzed the first of the three runs.
“Rebounding is a huge thing for our team,” Murphy said. “It’s one of our big mojo things. Everybody on our team rebounded today and got to the spots they were supposed to.”
In between the 10-0 and 9-0 runs that bookended the game, Tri-Village gave the Lady Rockets plenty to worry about.
In the final 53.5 seconds of the first quarter, the Pats ripped off a 6-0 run of their own to draw the score to a manageable 13-9 despite a catastrophic opening seven minutes.
In the second quarter, they heated up from deep, including a pair of back-to-back triples by Wilcox that cut the deficit to 21-18 and lit the crowd on fire.
But that’s the closest they ever climbed after Fayetteville’s head start.
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The Rockets had an answer to every threat. Murphy scored eight second-quarter points as her team went on yet another run, 9-0 this time, to inflate the lead to 12 before Sydnee DeLong’s late three-pointer made it 30-21 at the halftime horn.
Tri-Village’s varying defensive looks in the third quarter yielded a similar result – just OK. They typically rely on a heavy turnover advantage to get easy buckets. But Fayetteville limited Tri-Village to a 13-9 turnover advantage and allowed just one or two fast-break buckets.
Senior point guard Tai Mize drives into the double team looking for contact and a foul.
The Pats went to the fourth alive but reeling, still down nine.
Proponents of a shot clock in Ohio high school basketball could use Perry’s fourth period as Exhibit A to build their case.
The Rockets expressed little to no interest in shooting the ball. They preferred to drain the clock, and they did so effectively.
Guards Barber, Rummel and Lilly Carlier kept a tight leash on the ball to prevent Tri-Village’s normally prolific stealing defense from doing its thing. The offense, more so than the defense, pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter.
A quiet 9-0 run, mostly on free throws, put the Patriots’ dreams to a slow, painful death.
Only four Pats made a mark on the scoreboard. Mize scored a team-high 12 points, Wilcox dropped 11, Taytum Gray added five and DeLong three.
Tri-Village will lose DeLong, Mize, Alexa Light and Adalynn Hines to graduation. DeLong was a member of the 2023 state champion team.
For the rest, it’s back to the drawing board. In a town where they don’t hang banners for district-runners-up, they have to find a way to go meet the standard. The standard won’t sink down to meet them.
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