North loses in opening round to defending champs

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TROY — Tri-County North drew the unfortunate task of starting their playoff run against defending state champion Tri-Village on Saturday, Feb. 20. The Panthers fell to the one-seeded Patriots 73-37 at Troy High School.

“Coming off the win against (Twin Valley South), we were happy that we were moving in the right direction, but unfortunately we got a tough draw with Tri-Village,” said North head coach Dale Spitler. “We spent a lot of time preparing for them, but keeping it close is easier said than done.”

The Panthers committed several mistakes early on and fell 16-9 after the first quarter before only only posting four points in the second quarter. North headed into halftime down 34-13.

After the break, they still struggled on the offensive end, only scoring five in the third quarter while allowing the Patriots to put up 20 more on the night.

In the final quarter, the Panthers finally got some offense going, scoring 19 in that frame while only allowing Tri-Village to post 19.

They were led by Kurt Brinson who scored 14 points on the night while Gabe Brinson added 12. Anthony Duncan also added six points for the Panthers.

North ends their season with three wins while graduating five seniors in Duncan, Kurt Brinson, Garrett Woodyard, Damon Nelson, and Billy Daugherty.

“Kurt and Garrett were two of our captains and did a really nice job providing leadership to the team. Damon was a starter the majority of the season until an ankle injury a couple games ago ended his season. Anthony and Billy were excellent teammates and did whatever the team needed along the way,” said Spitler. “I wish we had another year with these guys because they were a great group of players to work with.”

By Jeremy Erskine

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Reach Jeremy at 937-683-4061 or on Twitter @jerskine_RH.

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