Vikings Claim Conference Perfection
DENVER – There was no way that the Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball team planned to share the conference championship this season.
The red-hot Vikings put an exclamation point on a perfect run through the Three Rivers Conference in emphatic fashion Thursday night.
Senior guard Nick Kindig tossed in a game-high 26 points as Valley routed host North Miami 66-29 in the final TRC game of the season.
Coach Bill Patrick’s Vikings improve to 15-2 overall and finish a perfect 7-0 in league play to win its first outright TRC title since also going 7-0 during the 2007-08 season. Valley shared the league championship with Northfield at 6-1 last season.
Valley shut down the struggling Warriors with defense Thursday night. The Vikings were coming off an eye-popping 146-56 TRC home win over Wabash last Friday night that was the talk of the state. In Thursday night’s win against North Miami, Valley allowed a season low point total.
The Vikings led 16-5 at the end of the opening quarter and 35-13 at halftime in never being challenged by the Warriors. North Miami falls to 1-16 overall and finishes 0-7 in TRC play after losing for the 11th straight time. The Warriors lone win was a 54-51 overtime victory over West Central on Dec. 15.
Valley, which beat North Miami 52-46 last season, has now won six in a row since a 63-46 loss at Class 3-A No. 9 Plymouth (15-3) on Jan. 5. The Vikings lost their season opener 72-64 at Warsaw then won nine in a row.
Junior Tanner Andrews, who had a school record tying 51 points to go with 31 rebounds last Friday night, scored 14 Thursday night. Alex Thacker and Ben Shriver each had six points for the Vikings, who had 10 different players score in the win.
Valley hosts Bremen Tuesday night.