MORGANTOWN – The Trinity Christian boys basketball team welcomed Frontier (Oh.) in an Ohio Valley Athletic Conference semifinal game on Tuesday night, and from the opening tip, the game had an unmistakable postseason vibe, with two evenly matched, yet unfamiliar opponents.
It took three and a half quarters of intense battling before the visiting Cougars, led by dynamic guards Jacob Bowersock and Avery Powell, finally prevailed against the Warriors, 56-47.
TCS (13-4) looked to employ their man defense to force mistakes and pick up easy transition points, but Frontier (12-5) took care of the ball, and rotated back on defense when they did turn it over. While the Warriors focused their offense on their solid perimeter shooters, the Cougars relied on dribble-drive penetration for much of their offense.
Tied at 12 after the first quarter, Trinity hit three big triples, two from Austin Porta and one from Maddox Mousadis, in the second quarter to take a brief six-point lead, but Frontier came back with a pair of late triples from Kason Hoff to hold a narrow 27-25 lead at the break.
The third quarter saw-sawed out in a series of mini runs, the Cougars edging out early to a 30-25 advantage, only to have the hosts score seven straight to regain the lead by two at 32-30.
But again, a pair of late triples, one each from Bowersock and Powell, edged Frontier back in front, 40-36 heading to the final quarter.
A big three-ball from Mousadis on their first possession brought the Warriors to within one, but they would get no closer. The combination of several TCS missed shots and buckets from Powell and Bowersock allowed the Cougars to slowly pull away down the stretch to win going away.
“This was a good, hard, tough basketball game between two good teams,” said Frontier coach Roger Kirkpatrick after the game. “We had a lot of varsity experience on the floor, and we play a tough schedule, so that confidence and experience made the difference for us.”
For Trinity coach Mitchell Bland, the combination of some missed defensive assignments and their poorest shooting game of the season was too much to overcome.
“That wasn’t our best performance for sure,” he smiled. “Our help defense didn’t stop their guards, and we weren’t as aggressive with boxing out or coming off screens as we’d like. We certainly have a lot to work on based on this one. But we were right there, against a good team, and if just one or two possessions each quarter had been better, the outcome might have gone our way, and that’s a big lesson right there.
“I told them after the game that this doesn’t dictate our season,” he continued. “The OVACs are always great because they are often just like what you’ll see at States. While of course we want to win every game on our schedule, we’ll use this game to learn and improve. Because there are bigger games we want to win.”
Trinity Christian will play this weekend at home in an OVAC consolation game at 7:00 p.m. against an opponent that is to be determined to close out their tournament, then travel to Blacksville on Monday for a key road game against rival Clay-Battelle at 7:30 p.m.
BOX SCORE
Frontier (Oh.) 56, Trinity Christian 47
FHS 12 15 13 16 – 56
TCS 12 13 11 8 – 47
Frontier (12-5) – Avery Powell 6 3-3 16 Hunter Taylor 4 0-0 8 Caleb Kirkpatrick 1 1-2 3 Jacob Bowersock 8 2-2 20 Kason Hoff 2 3-4 9 Totals 21 9-11 56
Trinity Christian (13-4) – Collin Lemley 3 2-2 9 Marcus Bland 1 0-0 3 Maddox Mousadis 7 3-4 19 Austin Porta 4 2-2 13 Totals 15 7-8 44
3pt. Goals made – Frontier 5 (Powell, Hoff 2, Bowersock 2), Trinity Christian 7 (Lemley, Bland, Mousadis 2, Porta 3)
