SIDNEY – The Tri-Village varsity boys basketball team traveled to Lehman Catholic, hanging a 55-26 senior night loss on the Cavaliers.

“They’re a good team. They are a real good team,” Lehman varsity boys basketball coach Isaiah Williams said. “They should go far.”

“I thought we played pretty well considering coming on Lehman’s floor and beat them by a pretty convincing margin,” Tri-Village varsity boys basketball coach Josh Sagester said. “I thought defensively we were really good.”

Lehman got on the board first with a John Husa goal that proved to be its only lead of the night.

Kyle Pipenger knocked down a basket in the paint, igniting a Patriots 15-0 run.

“We did a good job of having killer instinct and making sure we go ahead and close it out the way it needs to be closed out,” Sagester said.

A steal and lay-up from Shade Brubaker, a Pipenger trey, two free throws and a 3-pointer from Brubaker had the Lehman bench calling for a timeout.

Two Andrew Willcox free throws and a Tyler Cook two-point goal had Tri-Village holding a commanding 15-2 lead at the 1:23 first quarter mark.

“We missed our opportunities when we had them,” coach Williams said. “If you do that on this team, it’s going to be a long night.”

A Lehman trey and baskets from Cook and Pipenger closed out first quarter scoring with the Patriots up 19-5.

Pipenger dropped in a two-point second quarter opening basket followed by two Lehman field goals for a 21-9 Patriots advantage.

Matthew Werner hit all net on back-to-back 3-pointers, pushing the Patriots’ lead to 27-9.

Pipenger and Colton Linkous field goals sent the teams to the lockers at the break with Tri-Village leading 33-13.

“These guys are good,” Williams said. “They shot the ball well in the first half.”

The third period had the Patriots dishing off underneath to 6-foot 4-inch Tyler Cook, making four of Tri-Village’s five third quarter field goals. Brubaker went 4-for-4 at the charity stripe to cushion the Patriots’ lead at 47-19 heading into the final stanza.

“They went man in the third quarter. We were able to pound into our horse,” Sagester said. “We did a good job of finding Tyler Cook.”

Tri-Village outscored Lehman 8-7 the final quarter with all Patriots points coming at the free throw line. Pipenger went 4-for-4 at the line in the quarter, giving him 16 points on the evening to lead all scorers.

The Patriots won the battle of the boards 28-14.

“The key to tonight’s game was to rebound the basketball,” Sagester said. “Defensively we did do that. I was really pleased. You hold a team to 10 field goals in here, you’re probably going to win most basketball games.”

The Patriots put another “W” in the win column 55-26 in a very physical game as evidenced by Tri-Village shooting 15 second half free throws, making good on 12.

“We out-rebounded. We did what we wanted to do on that end,” coach Sagester said. “I thought offensively we were pretty efficient especially in the first three quarters. We saw lot of zone tonight.”

For the game, T-V connected on 16-of-21 free throws while knocking down five treys.