Sydney Wagner scored 21 points with eight rebounds, seven steals and seven assists in Tuesday win over Wawasee. (Photos by James Costello)

AKRON — Tuesday night’s match-up between sectional-rivals in Akron was a thrilling final home game for Tippecanoe Valley. The Lady Vikings sent their seniors off with a win, and they did so in pretty dominant fashion.

But just as thrilling as it was for the Vikings, it was equally frustrating for Wawasee, which suffered through a very lackluster fourth quarter on the way to a 69-39 defeat.

“You’ve kind of got to forget about all those emotions and all of what’s going on,” said Valley coach Chris Kindig of the challenge of playing on senior night. “You’ve still got to come out and play a basketball game, and I’ve been on the other end of those where you come out and don’t play well. It’s tough to have a senior night as it is, but your seniors want to go out on a winning note. So I was really happy for our seniors, that they were able to get a win.”

“Extremely frustrated with our performance and our effort, specifically in the start of the fourth quarter there for about four or five minutes,” said Wawasee coach Matt Carpenter. “I didn’t recognize the team that showed up on the floor, and we take full ownership of that as a coaching staff and as a team. It’s extremely disappointing.”

The Vikings could barely miss in the second half, knocking down 16-of-23 (69.5 percent) of their shots to pull away from the Warriors. The home team converted 10-of-14 shots during a 24-9 final period that saw them double a 15-point lead at the close of the third stanza.

“Sometimes you get a little bit of a cushion. I think we had about 15 points or so in that third quarter, and the basket looks a little bit bigger than when it’s a one-point or five-point game where it’s close. It’s not quite so important pressure-wise, so I thought things opened up for us,” explained Kindig. “That’s a good half for anybody. Twenty-four points in the fourth quarter, we’ve had quarters like that this year, but one thing I liked is I liked our consistency defensively tonight and offensively.”

“I was extremely disappointed with the effort at the end of the game because what it did is it overshadowed the first couple quarters where we hung in there and we kept trying to fight,” Carpenter said.

Jillian Walls knocked down her 58th three-pointer of the season, eclipsing the previous program single-season record of 57.

Senior guard Jillian Walls left the floor to a round of applause after knocking down her third three-pointer of the second half with around 3:15 left to play. That triple — which also brought Walls to 11 points for the night — represented her 58th of the season, a new single-season program record for the Lady Vikings. Walls had already tied a single-game three-point record with seven during a win over Logansport back in November.

“She got off to a little bit of slow start tonight, but kind of got going in the second half. She’s obviously capable of scoring in bunches,” said Kindig of Walls.

Freshman Kadence Mellott also a pair of treys on her way to 12 points, giving the Valley offense a kickstart with seven points off the bench in the first half. Junior Sydney Wagner poured on a game-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds, seven assists and seven steals in an all-around stellar performance.

“She’s kind of been doing that all year. She leads us in a lot of different categories — rebounds, scoring, assists, steals. She’s just a great all-around player. She played really well tonight,” said Kindig.

“We did a lot of things really right tonight. I also thought — it didn’t necessarily show it in the scoring — but Hayley Backus had six, and Karina Young had five. We need something inside-wise, and I thought they did a good job rebounding and kind of protecting the middle for us tonight. I was really pleased that we had an inside-outside game tonight. And I think in order for us to progress in this tournament, we’re going to have to have that, especially with some of the match-ups we have in sectional.”

The Warriors trailed by just 10 points through the first two frames and a still-surmountable 15-point deficit going into the fourth, but suddenly Valley could do no wrong, and the Warriors struggled in all facets. The visitors were out-rebounded 8-3 in the frame while turning the ball over six times. It was a disappointing note to end the regular season on, although Emily Haines did provide a bright spot in the game with 10 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

“She’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. A fantastic shooter, someone who, when she’s looking for her shot and when she’s shooting with confidence is really a great shooter,” said Carpenter of Haines.

“She’s figuring out how to use her strengths in the match-ups she’s getting. Sometimes she’s getting a big on her. Sometimes she’s getting a small on her, so she’s continuing to develop that.”

Emily Haines handles the ball up top while Katrina Young defends in the first half.

Danielle Jenkins added seven points, and Becca Smith recorded six points and two blocks for Wawasee, which closed the regular season at 8-14. They’ll return to action next Tuesday at the Lakeland Sectional in a tourney-opener opposite Central Noble at 6 p.m.

“Really, I just put it on them. They’ve got to figure it out. They have to make sure that they stay engaged in a game for 42 minutes because when we do that we’re pretty tough to beat. But when we fold, and we don’t respond and we don’t swing back when we get punched in the face like we did in the fourth quarter, we’re not the same team,” Carpenter said.

“To come out and to end a game — specifically the beginning of that fourth quarter — is disheartening, but I will tell you that they do have some tenacity, so we’ll respond. We’ve got a week to get ready, and they’ll be ready to go next Tuesday.”

Valley moves to 15-6 with their third win in four games. The Vikings will close out both their Three Rivers Conference slate and the regular season at Manchester Thursday before opening Lakeland Sectional play opposite NorthWood in the late game following Wawasee’s opener next Tuesday.

“It’s a team effort — offensively, defensively — and that’s what it’s going to take in a week or so here to get it done in the tournament. We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us, but we’re going to focus on Thursday night now,” Kindig said. “We need to win that final conference game and see where that lands us in the conference. It’d be nice to finish strong.”

Wawasee earned the win in Tuesday’s JV game, though, 33-30.

Lindsay Doss, Ava Harker and Amari Peete each finished with six points for the JV Warriors, Peete adding four steals and Doss tallying three. Corinna Stiles scored 10, Molly Moriarty had eight, and Sadie Snapp scored seven for the Valley JV.