Sophie Bussard (24), Addy Miller (22) and Taylor Trippiedi run the floor on a fast break while Bremen’s Catherine Reynoso trails the play Thursday in Akron. (Photos by James Costello)

AKRON — Sure, there’s still room for improvement, but all in all it’d be hard to find too much fault in Tippecanoe Valley’s girls basketball-opener with Bremen Thursday night.

Gone from last year’s group are five seniors and a trio of next-level players led by Lady Vikings all-time leading scorer Anne Secrest, leaving big shoes to fill on this year’s squad. But even with a new-look lineup, ICGSA Class 3-A, No. 6 Valley coasted in Thursday’s opener, leading wire to wire and ballooning its advantage out to as many as 20 points late on the way to a 46-33 home win.

“It’s one of those things where we’re just getting used to each other. I saw some good things out there,” said eighth-year Vikings coach Chris Kindig.

“We’re a work in progress, but as the year goes on, I think we’ve got a higher ceiling than last year, I guess maybe a bigger gap to make up. I think we’re going to get there; it’s just going to take a little time to get there.”

Sophie Bussard drives on Bremen’s Haylie Rodriguez.

The home team was paced offensively by Sophie Bussard’s game-high 19 points, alongside five rebounds and three assists by the junior guard. Bussard took advantage of some open driving lanes against Bremen’s 2-3 zone in the second half, scoring 11 points after the Lions spread out to cover Valley’s shooters — namely Addy Miller and Emily Peterson, who knocked down a trio of first-half 3s on the way to 11 and nine points, respectively, Thursday — after halftime.

“They were playing that zone out in the second half and really trying to play the wings and trap the wings, and so there were opportunities to drive to the basket. Sophie does that as well as anybody, so she had those scoring opportunities,” explained Kindig of Bussard’s second-half production. “I think it was just a matter of what the defense was giving us at that point in time. For me, this was an average night for her. She’s capable of doing this and more on a nightly basis, and I think she’s going to get some more help in the scoring column.”

On the other end of the floor, Valley’s man-to-man defense held the Lions to 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) shooting and forced 14 turnovers by the visitors on the way to a comfortable, 28-16 halftime lead. But it also got the Vikings into some foul trouble as the home team was whistled for nine personals over the first two periods. Bremen was already in the bonus at the 5:46 stop of the second quarter, and the Lions converted 5 of 7 free throws to stay within four possessions at the intermission.

The Vikings pulled out of their full court press and moved to a zone in the halfcourt in the third quarter. The zone defense is something the team hasn’t had much time to work on in the early going, but Valley still did a creditable job, holding the Lions to 6 of 19 (31.5 percent) shooting from the floor and creating another six Bremen turnovers after the break.

Emily Peterson slashes in while Bremen’s Bailey Vermillion, front, and Haylie Rodriguez adjust defensively.

“We’ve worked a lot of man over the first two weeks of practice here. We hadn’t really spent a lot of time on zone, but sometimes from a match-up standpoint or when you get into foul trouble you have to do that,” Kindig said. “I thought we gave up a few things in that zone not getting out on shooters, that type of thing. That was just a lack of us having enough time to spend enough time on the zone aspect of it. There are going to be times this year it’s going to happen that way, and we’re going to have to get better in our zone. But man-to-man I thought we were OK.”

Bremen got a double-double from versatile 6’1” junior Karlee Feldman. Feldman scored 13 points with 10 rebounds, and she added team-highs of four steals and two blocked shots in the loss. The mobile front-courter was a particular concern for Kindig and company headed into Thursday’s contest, and the Vikings held her down with ball pressure in the Bremen backcourt to deny her and a yeoman’s defensive effort from Asia O’Connor and Makenzie Woodcox when Feldman did catch the ball in position to score. O’Connor was called for three first-half fouls and sat intermittently and Woodcox picked up three fouls in the second half, but the duo combined to limit their tough defensive assignment to 4-of-12 conversions from the floor Thursday.

“She was definitely a match-up concern for us,” said Kindig of Feldman. “For the most part, she didn’t get the ball a lot down in the block where I was concerned she could just turn and score. When she did we wanted to double down on her, and make her maybe have to go middle or something like that. But she’s a really decent outside shot, and she likes to face up more than really playing with her back to the basket. A little bit of a challenge for us, but we’ll learn from it and keep moving on.”

Olivia Trippiedi creates havoc on the defensive end opposite Haylie Rodriguez.

While she didn’t show up much in the scoring column, senior guard Olivia Trippiedi finished with five steals and five assists opposite Bremen to go with a pair of buckets. Woodcox finished with three points as Kindig went nine deep rotating in her, sophomore guards Emma Craig and Jillian Walls, as well as sophomore forward Karina Young dabbling with different lineups in Thursday’s opener.

“I thought Olivia Trippiedi did a nice job overall for us tonight,” Kindig said. “And then we’re going to have to find some good minutes out of that number seven, number eight and number nine player, whoever that is. We’re still trying to figure out who that is. We played Jillian Walls a little bit the first half because I thought offensively she’s a shooter. The second half we played Emma Craig a little bit because she’s maybe a little bit better defender. Makenzie Woodcox I thought came in and did a decent job on Feldman defensively, so we got some good minutes out of her. We’re just going to have to develop our bench.”

Valley’s JV also won its opener via a 53-13 rout of Lakeland Christian, which was brought in to replace short-handed Bremen Thursday. Sidney Wagner scored 14, and Craig finished with eight as 11 different players made the scoring column for the Vikings’ JV squad. LCA was paced by Winnie Kyandaluba’s four points and Lauren Starrett’s three.

The Vikings play host to Culver Academy next Tuesday, part of a five-game home stretch leading into the team’s home tournament Nov. 25.