Valley Basketball: Defense Dandy In Win Over Warriors

Addy Miller led Valley with 13 points in a 48-21 win at Wawasee Tuesday night.

SYRACUSE – The Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team was downright stingy Tuesday night.

In a good and productive way of course.

The Class 3-A No. 8 Vikings turned in a stellar team effort on the defensive end to stifle host Wawasee for an 48-21 non-conference win.

Valley allowed the Warriors just seven total field goals in the game, including just a pair in the second half. The Vikings outscored the hosts 20-7 in the second half, including holding the hosts scoreless in the final quarter.

Junior Addy Miller scored 13 points and senior star Anne Secrest 12 to lead a balanced offensive effort for the Vikings, who improve to 19-4 with their fifth straight win.

Senior Hannah Haines and sophomore Casey Schroeder each scored six points to lead the Warriors, who drop to 9-12.

Valley, which entered play Tuesday night allowing just 36 points-per-game on the season, held the Warriors to less than half of their per game offensive average. It was also the lowest point total of the season for Wawasee.

“We’ve been improving on defense all year and I thought that our girls had a great defensive effort tonight,” said Valley coach Chris Kindig. “We mixed it up some on defense and I thought that we did a pretty good job in the first half to allow just 14 points. To hold them to just seven in the second half was even better. We did a good job containing their dribble penetration and guarding their 3-point shooters.”

Valley and Wawasee could possibly meet in a sectional semifinal next week at West Noble. Both have big conference games left Thursday night as the Vikings go for their third straight outright Three Rivers Conference title and 28th consecutive league win at home versus Manchester and Wawasee hosts Concord with a winning record in league play on the line.

“You never know how things are going to play out tonight with a big conference game Thursday, but our girls had the right mindset tonight,” noted Kindig. “Wawasee is a solid team. We looked at the film of their wins over Whitko and NorthWood.

“I was pretty happy with everything we did tonight. We had good balance on offense and just need to continue to play together on offense.”

Casey Schroeder had six points for Wawasee.

Valley, which beat Wawasee twice last year including 62-34 in the sectional, trailed just twice in the game at 2-0 and 4-2. The Vikings used an 8-0 run in the opening quarter to take a 14-8 lead. Valley led 28-14 at halftime as Miller had 10 points, including a pair of treys in the second stanza.

Valley opened the second half with a quick 7-0 run to make it 35-14 before Wawasee took a timeout at the 6:19 mark. The hosts had just two field goals in the third period in being outscored 15-7.

The Warriors, who had posted big wins over league foe NorthWood and Class 2-A No. 1 Whitko in the past few weeks, did not play up to par according to their mentor.

“Give Valley credit,” said first-year Wawasee coach Matt Carpenter. “They played how they are capable of playing tonight. They are a good team and they made us pay for every flaw tonight. They executed and exploited everything that we did not do.

“But tonight was not the team that I’m used to seeing. Tonight was not who we are. We have been giving 100 percent and playing 32 minutes. That was not our mentality tonight when the shots did not drop. But we can fix this. This game can either be a speed bump or a road block for us and I think it will be a speed bump.

“We will talk about it tomorrow at practice and I expect us to come out and fight on Thursday. We have a big conference game with a Concord team that has been improving all year.”

Sophomore Sophie Bussard had nine points and senior Hannah Dunn six, all in the first quarter, for the Vikings. Sophomore Emily Peterson had four points and senior Meredith Brouyette and junior Asia O’Connor two each.

Secrest, the stellar 6-0 center and Youngstown State recruit, also had 10 rebounds for the winners.

Junior Aubrey Kuhn scored three points and juniors Kabrea Rostochak and Hannah-Marie Lamle and senior Aubrey Schmeltz each had two for Wawasee.

Wawasee won the junior varsity game 33-30. Morgan Adkins had 14 points and McKenzie Smith seven to lead the winners. Emma Craig had 12 points and Jilian Walls eight to pace the Vikings.

Valley hosts Manchester and Wawasee hosts Concord on Thursday night.