NorthWood Basketball: Panthers Extend Streak At Valley
AKRON — Both NorthWood’s and Tippecanoe Valley’s boys basketball teams came into Tuesday night’s game playing some pretty good basketball. But the Vikings struggled to knock down their shots in the first half, the Panthers were a little more balanced and a little deeper, and the visitors claimed a 53-37 victory in the match-up between Sectional 21 rivals in Akron.
The win pushed NorthWood’s win streak out to five straight and represented the team’s third in just four days.
“I think our players are getting comfortable in their roles, and I think that has been helping us on both the offensive and defensive end,” said NorthWood coach Aaron Wolfe. “There have been stretches where we’ve shot the ball extremely well and had interior play, and I think the combination of both of those on offense sometimes makes your team go. And I think we’re becoming more sound defensively.”
Valley was getting good looks in the first half but still scuffled to 7-of-23 shooting before the break. Despite those shooting woes, the Vikings went blow-for-blow with their guests over a first period that featured four lead changes and three ties. But NorthWood used a 14-2 run stretching from Caleb Glick’s putback at the 1:05 stop of the first to Kaden Gongwer’s triple from the corner at the 3:35 mark of the second period to take control at 27-14, pushing that cushion out to as many as 20 points with Brad Delio’s 3 from the top of the key with 2:35 remaining in the third.
Valley whittled that deficit back down to as few as 12 points with a 10-2 spurt capped by Cam Parker’s reeling, backwards fader from outside the lane at the 5:39 stop of the fourth, but the Panthers answered right back to hand the Vikings their first loss in three games following the team’s first back-to-back wins of the season over Three Rivers Conference foes Rochester and North Miami.
“They’re very deep; they’re very good. It doesn’t matter if their guy is playing one or 12, they just reload. We’ll get this program back to where we used to be and where we had that,” said Valley head coach Chad Patrick.
“I was happy with our effort; I was happy with the way we competed with them for most of the game. That’s the best team in the sectional — probably them and Fairfield — and we played with them. If we hit any shots at all, we’re right there with them.”
A full 10 players saw significant floor time for NorthWood, and three of its starters finished in double figures, led by Delio’s 19 points. The senior guard knocked down 6 of 10 shots — including 4 of 6 3s as he and Tanner Trippiedi traded 3-pointers during a third quarter that saw the two teams combine for six of them — on his way to the game-high tally, while Caleb Lung finished with 15 earned at 7-of-9 efficiency on the inside, and Gongwer hit 4 of 9 shots on his way to 10 points. Delio also passed out four assists, and Glick finished with five helpers as part of a 15-assist night by the Panthers.
“I think ball movement is one of the factors with this basketball team. When the ball is moving we seem to get great shots, and tonight was no different,” Wolfe said.
“We’ve had a number of players pass the ball extremely well. I look at Brad Delio shot the ball really, really well. Caleb Glick did a very, very nice job of passing the basketball. Kaden Gongwer shot the ball extremely well from the perimeter and then I thought Caleb Lung was really efficient in the interior tonight.”
Trippiedi carried the offensive load for Valley, meanwhile, with five 3-pointers on his way to 17 points following a 25-point outing against North Miami. Jace Potter scored all seven of his points in the first period but was limited to just two more shots after the first frame.
“We definitely need Tanner to score. The other guys will have their moments, will have their nights, but Tanner has got to be consistent for us and he’s kind of done that the last few games,” Patrick said.
It wasn’t the outcome Patrick wanted, but he certainly couldn’t fault their effort, and the Vikings (4-15) seem to have turned a corner since enduring a nine-game losing streak from Dec. 28 to Feb. 1. They’ll look to get back in the win column with a home game against Triton Friday before closing out their TRC schedule at Maconaquah next Wednesday.
“We’ve got a couple practices before a big Triton game Friday night. That’ll be a fun one and then a couple tough games next week, and we’ll be ready to roll for sectional week. We just keep improving, getting better, and that’s all we can ask,” said Patrick.
NorthWood (13-5) looks to extend its win streak as it continues a busy stretch at Elkhart Christian Friday followed by a home game versus Oregon-Davis Saturday.
“We have four games this week. This is a rigorous week for us as far as games,” said Wolfe. “I felt that tomorrow and Thursday are going to be needed days where we’re going to get to practice.”