Tippecanoe Valley’s Anne Secrest celebrates after her team beat NorthWood, 64-60, in double overtime Friday night in the Wawasee Girls Basketball Sectional semi-finals. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Since the current alignment of the Class 3-A Sectional 21 was formed in 2008, one thing was for certain: either Wawasee or NorthWood was going to win the sectional championship. Tippecanoe Valley said ‘not so fast’ and knocked out half of that equation Friday night in an epic 64-60 double overtime win over NorthWood.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Caylie Teel puts up her putback attempt in the first overtime over NorthWood’s Jordyn Frantz, sending the game into double overtime.

Valley needed every ounce of juice from its roster Friday night, and caught a few lucky breaks. Valley led 43-39 after Caylie Teel pulled down an offensive board and put back two. NorthWood responded with two free throws and a Jordyn Frantz layup to tie the game, and Wood stole the ball back and held possession for nearly a minute with time running out.

For so many seasons, NorthWood has made the final shot when given the opportunity, but the stars weren’t aligned as NorthWood tossed the ball out of bounds, preluding the first overtime.

As the first extra session was expiring, Valley trailed by two. A missed shot had Taylor Trippiedi miss a putback, but the ball bounded into Teel’s hands who made the second chance count, sending the game into a second overtime.

“I saw the opening, grabbed the ball and took the shot,” Teel said of the rebound and putback in the first overtime. “I saw the ball go in and said, ‘oh my gosh.’ It was just instinct.”

Anne Secrest took over the second overtime. A pair of and-one’s right out of the gate put Valley up 56-52, and an offensive rebound by Secrest and putback had Valley up 61-55 and heading into the sectional finals for the first time since 2007.

NorthWood’s Jordyn Frantz concluded her outstanding career by recording 24 points, five rebounds, five blocks and four steals.

Secrest’s numbers were obscene, scoring 27 points, hitting all nine of her free throws, and adding 17 rebounds. Teel added 10 points and five rebounds while Trippiedi scored five of her 14 points in the overtime sessions.

“Somebody else was going to have to beat us,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Chris Kindig, referring to Frantz. “She’s so long and is great on the ball, that we had to make someone else step up. We wanted to prevent her from shooting the three. She still hit her shots, but we did a great job of controlling her.”

Frantz, as expected, was the engine driving NorthWood. The St. Louis University-bound senior closed her prolific career at NorthWood with 24 points, five rebounds, five blocks and four steals. Frantz’s jumper in the first overtime gave NorthWood a 49-48 lead and 1-2 free throws later in the frame put Wood up two, setting up Teel’s heroics.

Haley Roe closed out her senior campaign with 17 points and Aricka Flickinger finished with 10 points for the Panthers.

NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder can’t believe a call late in the first overtime.

NorthWood, which was seeking its fourth straight sectional title and 25th overall in its storied history, finishes at 19-6. Going back to the 2004 season, NorthWood had won eight sectional titles, Wawasee grabbing the other three.

NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder, in his first year at the helm, wasn’t throwing a pity party afterwards.

“I’m proud of them,” stated Yoder. “I’m extremely proud of our seniors. They played so hard and led us to a great year. They don’t have much to be ashamed of and played in a great high school basketball game. They just got beat.”

Tippecanoe Valley, now 21-2 this season, moves to Saturday night’s championship game to face Three Rivers Conference rival Whitko in the finals. The Wildcats earned a spot back in the championship game for the second year in a row with a 37-33 win over Wawasee in game two. Valley and Whitko played to a four-point game in December, won by Valley 42-38.

Valley is seeking its sixth sectional championship, Whitko its first.