Valley’s Nolan Cumberland battles with Peru’s Treyden Curtis for a rebound during a TRC game in Akron Tuesday night. (Photos by James Costello)

AKRON — According to Tippecanoe Valley coach Chad Patrick, the players with the most impact on his team’s game with visiting Peru never saw the floor at Rita Price Simpson Court Tuesday night. And that’s because the Vikings who did play in that Three Rivers Conference-opener simply weren’t prepared for the Tigers’ pressure.

After falling behind by 10 early, Peru players began taking it to their hosts in the second period, tying it up at 24-24 at the half. With no Valley answer for their physicality, the Tigers took their first lead half a minute into the second half and never trailed again on the way to a 58-48 victory over Valley.

“I fully blame this on the guys who don’t get to play and the second four or five in practice because they don’t go all that hard. Last year’s team got really, really good because the four or five guys that didn’t get to play much killed those five guys on the floor all the time in practice,” explained Patrick. “Those guys were all over everybody in practice, and the starters and the first few subs didn’t like it but yet they knew it was necessary. These guys aren’t going after them at all, so I put them all on notice — I’m going to bring down whoever from JV I need to to go after these guys. In practice all those passes go because there’s no pressure, there’s nobody on them. Tonight against a good team who denies, we’ve got 17 turnovers. The only way you can get ready for that is to practice right.”

The Vikings did indeed cough the ball up 17 times against Peru’s pressure, and the Tigers capitalized with 12 points off those turnovers. The visitors also won the battle of the boards by a 26-22 margin — including a dominant, 16-9 showing in the second half — and finished with 10 second-chance points in Akron. And the sum total of those extra possessions was a Peru victory.

Paul Leasure attemps a shot over Treyden Curtis and Michale Chandler.

Jumping out to a 12-2 lead — on the strength of early, 6-of-8 shooting at the start of the first period — the Vikings still led by a healthy, 17-8 margin at the 5:35 stop of the second. But with sophomore Rex Kirchenstien already sidelined with two fouls, things really began to unravel when senior Tanner Trippiedi left the game after being whistled for his second foul at the 5:25 stop of the frame. Valley’s younger players began to show their youth, and Peru went on an 18-7 tear, including back-to-back three-pointers by Michael Chandler to close out the half on a 6-0 spurt by the Tigers.

“They were playing great, and they get two fouls. Probably should’ve left them in the game, but I thought if we could get through that half being tied and they come back out… But neither one of them really got back into the game until later in the third,” recalled Patrick. “Rex never got back in the game. He had some really good rebounds and was playing good defense, but I’ve learned with Rex already, once he starts getting fouls it snowballs so I had to get him out. We were up (nine) when we I took Tanner out. I thought surely we could withstand the last three or four minutes and still have the lead, and, boy, was I wrong. Yeah, if I had that to do over I would definitely change that.”

Peru jumped out to a 6-1 start to the second half, but Valley managed to tie it up one more time when Trippiedi stepped into the lane and swung the ball to a waiting Braden Shepherd for a wing triple that knotted the game up at 32-32. But the Tigers scored the next nine points for most of the night’s final margin. Not only were the Vikings unable to handle a much more physical Peru lineup, they weren’t able to parlay any of that contact into free throws as they attempted just two charity tosses Tuesday compared to a 9-of-11 showing by the Tigers at the foul line.

Braden Shepherd’s drive is stopped by Matthew Ross in the first half.

“At the end of the second quarter and that third quarter they just came out and man-handled us. We’re in the weight room two or three days a week. We’re getting a lot stronger, but that’s the difference in juniors and seniors versus freshmen and sophomores,” said Patrick. “We’ve just got to be able to handle that physicality and take it to them, and I think we would’ve gotten fouls called. But when you’re going away from the contact all the time and trying to avoid it, no ref is going to call it.”

Valley’s defense held senior guard Daunte Majors, who was averaging 16 points per game headed into the contest, to just eight points, but several other Peru players picked up the slack. Chandler scored 13, Matt Ross put up 12, and Kade Townsend notched a game-high 17 points.

The Vikings got 10 points from freshman Paul Leasure, but his was the only double-digit contribution to the Valley offense. Freshman Nolan Cumberland, Kirchenstien and Trippiedi each put up seven points, and Kirchenstien pulled down seven rebounds while Trippiedi passed out five assists. Sophomore forward Dawson Perkins matched that output with seven points of his own — including a two-handed slam on a Cumberland helper with 51 seconds to play — and he finished the night with two blocks as well.

Peru improves to 4-1 and 2-0 in TRC with its second-straight conference win, while Valley slips to 2-4 and an 0-1 league start with the loss. The Vikings play another TRC game on the road at Whitko Friday at 7:45 p.m.

“They have, what, six, seven eight guards? They don’t have a big guy so they might struggle to guard our big guy, but they can put up a lot of points and right now we’re struggling to put up points,” said Patrick of Friday’s match-up with the Wildcats. “We’ve got to figure out a way to slow them down, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get a few more points on the board. Last year’s team, we could hold teams under 40, 45 points consistently. This year’s team is going to struggle to do that until later in the year so we’ve got to figure out a way to get some more points on the board.”

Valley’s JV won its contest, 45-22, Tuesday. Cumberland and Tayde Kiser each scored nine, and Damien Kohler put up eight as nine JV Vikings made the scoring column. Andrew Beebout scored seven for the Peru JV.