Tippecanoe Valley’s Kaydence Mellott watches a three-pointer fly over the reach of Bremen’s Ellia Foster in the fourth quarter of a 50-45 win at Bremen Thursday night. InkFreeNews photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

BREMEN – History in the series between Tippecanoe Valley and Bremen girls basketball has largely been on Valley’s side. But the old school name placards on the far scoreboard last saw a story in 2018 that almost unfolded again in 2020.

A comfortable first half for the visiting Vikings soon turned into a nailbiter as Bremen made a game of the 50-45 Viking win Thursday night.

Valley, which is 11-3 against Bremen under head coach Chris Kindig, had one of those losses come in the 2018 opener in the Bremen gym. After Valley gained an early edge in that contest, the Lions roared back in the second half to smash Valley by 14. That story was starting to play out in the 2020 season opener for both clubs, but this time Valley stopped the bleeding before things got out of hand.

Valley led 25-15 at the half, spurned on by 10 points each from Hayley Backus and Sidney Wagner. Backus worked almost unopposed on the inside, scoring on several looks as Bremen lacked the height to get over the top. Wagner’s aggressive play off the point also had Bremen chasing as the senior dynamo got her sea legs going in the second quarter with all of those 10 points.

But while Wagner was held scoreless in the third, Bremen’s Ellia Foster got red hot. Foster, who scored all eight of Bremen’s first quarter points, more than doubled that in the third, scoring 17 of Bremen’s 18 points. A fallback three-pointer in the waning seconds of the third made it 36-33 Valley.

“Making plays when we needed to defensively,” Kindig said. “Foster was tough tonight. She hit some tough shots. She hit that shot at the end of the third quarter that was big. She’s a nice player and one we knew we had to focus on. We didn’t do a great job with her, but we did enough to come out on top.”

Kaydence Mellott would come through with a pair of huge shots for the Vikings. Mellott nailed a three from the corner, then after Bremen’s Katie Moyer got loose on a backdoor cut for a bucket to make it 42-40 Vikes, Mellott set up from almost the exact same spot in the corner and nailed another triple to give Valley a five-point lead.

“Kaydence Mellott, she’s capable of hitting them in bunches, and she got two big threes there in the fourth that kind of gave us the cushion we needed,” stated Kindig.

Wagner would have a hand, literally, in closing out the contest, recording a pair of steals in the final two minutes. Wagner and Backus would finish with 16 points each while Foster closed with 28 points. Moyer added eight points for the Lions and Mellott ended with three treys and nine points for the Vikes.

The JV contest had a brutally slow first half, just 3-2 at the break, pick up in the second half and grow into a 22-14 Valley win.