Tippecanoe Valley’s Sophie Bussard (24) helps up teammate Sidney Wagner after a made basket Saturday in Valley’s win over Lakeland at the West Noble Girls Basketball Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

LIGONIER – Gritty could be a loose term to describe the two semi-final games Saturday night at the Class 3-A West Noble Girls Basketball Sectional. Tippecanoe Valley’s fast start and ice water at the free throw line was needed to eventually fend off Lakeland in game one while West Noble got defensive in knocking out NorthWood in the second semi.

TIPPECANOE VALLEY 68, LAKELAND 54

One aspect of the first time these two teams met in December that Valley head coach Chris Kindig was unhappy about was Valley’s inability to take advantage of opportunities.

That changed Saturday night.

Valley was 29-36 from the free throw line and a sizzling 17-21 from the line in the fourth quarter to put away the Lakers. A one-point win over Lakeland in December’s West Noble Classic had Valley hit just 11-29 free throws. In the sectional tournament, Valley erupted for an 18-3 lead to open the first three minutes, watched Lakeland get back in it, but use that free throw shooting to advance to the title game Monday night.

Makenzie Woodcox fires up a shot against Lakeland.

“I really thought the start of the game, when you have that one senior, get that confidence early and kind of set the tone,” Kindig said. “We didn’t really give up that 10-12 point lead the rest of the game. That really set the tempo early for us.”

Bussard was almost automatic from the line, going 18-21 as Lakeland couldn’t find a way to ice the senior. Bussard made just four field goals in the game, all of which came in the first quarter during the opening run, but she finished with 26 points.

Jillian Walls and Sidney Wagner both finished with 11 points, Wagner doing a lot of her damage early and Walls had all but two of her points in the fourth quarter. Her three from the corner was a dagger, silencing Lakeland after Beth Stroop had just hit a three on the other end to cut the Valley lead to nine.

“Obviously our free throw shooting was key tonight and she was one of them that hit a bunch,” said Kindig of Walls’ contributions. “She is a very good free throw shooter, she just needs to get to the line a lot more than she has been this year. She is more of an outside shooter, doesn’t attract a lot of that driving in and getting fouled stuff. They fouled her tonight and she knocked them down.”

Bailey Hartsough continued to shine as part of a very promising future for Lakeland (15-8), the sophomore netting 21 points on a roster that has just one senior and two juniors. Lone senior Makayla Mast ended with 10 points.

Tippecanoe Valley (16-6) will rematch with West Noble (17-5) in the championship Monday night. The two played in the West Noble Classic championship game, the Vikings winning that game by six points.

WEST NOBLE 37, NORTHWOOD 34

West Noble head coach Dale Marano wanted to find the words after his team held off NorthWood in the night’s second game.

He came up with very few.

“Our girls played really, really hard and I think you see that on the defensive end,” Marano stated. “We’ve played defense all year. We can score, we have a lot of scorers on the team, but the team defense has been our saving grace all year.”

West Noble’s Madison Schermerhorn deflects the ball away from NorthWood’s Maddy Payne.

A final stop in the last 25 seconds of the game had the conclusion end rather unceremoniously. After NorthWood’s Maddy Payne hit a pair of free throws put the score at 37-34 Chargers with 51.8 seconds left, West Noble went on to commit a turnover and NorthWood had possession with 25.8 seconds left.

Following a NorthWood timeout, head coach Adam Yoder designed a play to rotate the ball around through his perimeter shooters, giving options to either Kenzie Bergman, Karlie Fielstra or Neely Trenshaw. Both Bergman and Fielstra had the ball in their hands as time trickled away, but neither was able to get a clean look at the basket. As West Noble’s vibrant fan base chanted down a phantom time, Bergman tossed the ball aimlessly towards the hoop with still five seconds on the clock. West Noble grabbed the errant toss, and NorthWood didn’t foul as the final seconds harmlessly faded away.

“I think in the heat of the moment I think they sensed that was it,” offered Yoder to the final sequence. “Obviously, we could have fouled with five or six seconds left. I was kind of confused myself. That really didn’t have an effect on anything in my opinion. That was a quirky thing.”

Where Marano and Yoder both agreed the game was a defensive showcase, both offenses didn’t show any signs of taking over. NorthWood hit just 11 field goals in the game, six from Bergman, to which four of hers were three-pointers. The Panthers, however, never led in the second half, and couldn’t get any closer than three. At 31-28 after a Kate Rulli and-one, NorthWood looked like it would do enough of the grit to put itself in position, and had West Noble tossing around the ball. But two loose balls on the Chargers’ next possession eventually found its way to Tara Miller in the corner, and her only basket of the night was a three, which gave the home siders a 34-28 lead.

“We had opportunities at the line, we got to the free throw line a lot in the first half and didn’t take advantage of them,” said Yoder, whose team was 1-6 from the line in the first half and 8-18 for the game. “We got shots around the basket early and things just didn’t fall. But West Noble did an outstanding job defensively. You’re talking about one of the top 30 defensive teams in the state.”

To Yoder’s point, West Noble is ranked 27th in the state defensively, allowing just 36.8 points per game including Saturday night’s win, which is third-best in Class 3-A.

Madison Schermerhorn led West Noble with 10 points while Lauren Burns, Megan Godfrey and Angela Gross all finished with seven points. Bergman led NorthWood (16-8) with 17 points in her final game as a Panther, while Rulli and Payne each had eight points.

The Chargers (17-5) are playing for just its second sectional championship, the only one coming in 1988.

The championship between Valley and West Noble begins at 7 p.m. Monday night.