Hannah Dunn provided big points late to finish with 10 for the game in Valley’s sectional win over Fairfield Tuesday night. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – They were far from perfect but the Tippecanoe Valley Lady Vikings did just what they needed to to keep their season alive Tuesday night.

The Valley girls basketball team began its postseason journey with a game against Fairfield in the opening round of the 2015 Class 3A Girls Sectional 21 Tournament at Wawasee High School. The Lady Vikings pulled away from an upset-minded Fairfield squad to win 46-37.

Though Valley enjoyed a double-digit lead early on, the Lady Vikings never seized control of the game. A flurry of turnovers in the first and second quarters allowed Fairfield to hang around and keep pushing for the upset.

When all was said and done, the No. 9 Lady Vikes had committed 19 turnovers, something that most teams would not be able to recover from.

“We talked about a recipe for success,” said Valley head coach Chris Kindig. “We said we needed 10 turnovers or less, that would be ideal. I think we had 10 in the first eight minutes of the game.”

Every other possession seemed to be a turnover for Valley’s offense. Thankfully for the Lady Vikings, Fairfield had a tough time getting any offensive rhythm of its own early on. Building that lead early on helped Valley hold on to a 23-18 lead at the half. But it was Fairfield that came out with the momentum, outscoring Valley 12-7 in the third quarter, making the score 30-28 heading into the final frame.

Karis Tucker drives inside for a shot.

Apparently being pushed that much was just what Valley needed. That two-point lead quickly grew for Valley as it went on an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Once the Lady Vikes took the momentum back, Fairfield seemed to lose most of its fight as Valley would hang on for the victory.

In a game that was close throughout, the Lady Vikings needed big plays at both ends of the court and they got them from multiple players. Coming as no surprise was Anne Secrest’s fantastic play. Secrest led all scorers with 17 points and caused havoc on defense all night with 16 rebounds and seven blocks. Secrest also added four assists and a steal. Meredith Brouyette and Hannah Dunn also stepped up huge for Valley as each player scored 10 points. Jalisa Schwartz led Fairfield with nine points.

“We kind of played a half-court game with them,” Kindig said. “We really wanted to speed the game up and we just weren’t able to do that at times. But, Hannah Dunn made some big plays down the stretch for us and we made the plays that we needed to make to pull away. Taking that two-point lead and getting it up to nine or 10 in the final quarter really was the key to the game for us.

“But, we’re going to have to play much better Friday night.”

Valley (20-2) advances to the semi-final round against No. 10 NorthWood (19-5). The Lady Panthers were outright Northern Lakes Conference champions and defeated Valley 61-55 earlier this season. That game will tip at 6 p.m.

Taylor Trippiedi scored four points for Valley Tuesday night.