Valley Muscles Through NorthWood
NAPPANEE – Tippecanoe Valley’s girls basketball shuffled out of the visiting locker room as The Pit emptied Thursday night in some kind of mood. It was quiet, several girls had their shoulders hunched. One may have inferred the mighty Lady Vikes had been whipped by NorthWood.
In a season, however, where Tippecanoe Valley has big plans, a 43-28 win at NorthWood wasn’t good enough. Not by their standards.
For the first time in program history, no less, Valley defeated NorthWood at The Pit per the consensus of the gathered media, Valley head coach Chris Kindig and some loose records found online. After defeating NorthWood at the sectional last season for the first time in program history, Valley had established a hurdle to clear. Making that second jump Thursday wasn’t easy against a much shorter, yet scrappy Panther side that still has plenty of moxie and will power.
But the Panthers were unable to match up with the Viking posts, and it made all the difference going away.
Valley had 33 points from its twin towers in Hannah Dunn and Anne Secrest. Dunn had six of her 16 points in the fourth quarter and Secrest converted a key and-one as NorthWood had clawed back within 10 points. Secrest wrapped up with 17 points and eight boards and Dunn added seven boards and three assists. The exploitation of NorthWood’s lack of height inside became the X-factor in the contest.
“Obviously, we were trying to get the ball down there in the second half,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Chris Kindig of his post production. “I told the girls in the locker room, let’s come back and get a little bit of practice and prepare for Southwood. Let’s have a great homecoming on Saturday night and move on from this.”
NorthWood had chipped a big Valley lead in the third to just a two-point deficit. Kindig called time-out, and immediately got the ball to his workhorse in Secrest, who scored right away to put Valley up four. Tippy would go on a 9-0 run after the timeout, to which NorthWood couldn’t come up with the offense to keep pace.
NorthWood was held without a field goal in the fourth quarter and shot just 8-37 from the floor (22 percent) while coughing up the ball 17 times. Valley actually gave the ball away more in the contest, losing 23 possessions, but shot 47 percent from the floor (17-36) and won the rebounding battle 30-22.
“It seemed like on the offensive end, it was like treading through quicksand,” Kindig said. “We weren’t crisp in our passing and we didn’t get the ball in the right spots, particularly in the first half. Just not sharp.”
Aricka Flickinger led the Panthers (13-8) with eight points, seven steals and four rebounds in a spirited individual effort. Taitlyn Trenshaw, one of the top options for NorthWood, was held to four points on 2-12 shooting. Andrea Tuttle finished with seven points.
“We shot atrociously, and had Valley shot like they normally do, we would have been in big trouble,” said NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder. “Credit Valley, they found Dunn when we took away Secrest. We kept them from hitting too many threes. I can live with Secrest getting 17, but we have to do a better job on Dunn. Hopefully there is a next time. I know our kids would look forward to it.”
Valley (18-1) will look to seal up the Three Rivers Conference if it can win at home Saturday against Southwood and next Thursday at Manchester. The Vikings have a game in hand on Rochester after an epic 61-51 win last Saturday. Sandwiched in between the conference games is a non-conference game against another sectional rival when Wawasee visits Tuesday.
NorthWood will also play Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday formats with conference and non-conference games. Saturday NorthWood entertains Goshen in a key NLC matchup, then hosts Class 2-A No. 1 Oregon-Davis before ending at Warsaw next Thursday.