Fairfield Sectional: Wawasee Upsets, Fairfield Survives
BENTON – Two teams played Friday with nothing to lose, and one – Wawasee – provided a major upset in the Fairfield Girls Basketball Sectional. Wawasee eliminated No. 6 Tippecanoe Valley on a game winner from Aubrey Kuhn while NorthWood had No. 3 Fairfield on the ropes before the hosts rallied to knock the Panthers out of the state tournament.
Wawasee 40, Valley 39
It was the shot heard around Syracuse. And one Aubrey Kuhn will never forget.
Dragging on the heels of the flu, a broken nose and a woozy head after a nasty fall in the third quarter, Kuhn proved she was a gamer. Down one with 10.7 seconds to go, Kuhn took the ball, split a double team and drove in for the game-winning layup with three seconds left. Valley’s desperation heave was no good, sending Wawasee to its biggest tournament win in eight years.
“I wanted to do it for my teammates, I didn’t have it set in my mind that I had to make the shot, I just let God take over my body and let whatever happen that was going to happen. It just so happened to go in,” said an exhausted Kuhn. “I have to give it to Valley, they contested me, great defense, nothing they did wrong. I don’t know. God just let it go in.”
Kuhn finished the night with 12 points and added two assists and two steals, but played with the heart of a champion. Already wearing a mask to protect the nose she rebroke three weeks ago, Kuhn was knocked over on a rebound attempt and landed on her head. Her status for Saturday night’s final is still up in the air, but her coach will take whatever he can get.
“She breaks her nose for a second time three weeks ago, plays the last three conference games with a facemask, has been sicker than a dog this week, went home yesterday and wasn’t able to practice,” Carpenter said of Kuhn. “That’s the fight and mentality that I knew we had the whole time, and it’s awesome for the girls to be able to get a reward like that for how hard they fight.”
Casey Schroeder, Wawasee’s leading scorer this season, was held scoreless until 3:51 of the third quarter, but came through big down the stretch. Schroeder opened the fourth with a three, and later made a layup that tied the game at 38 to give her a quick nine points. After Addy Miller made a free throw to put Valley up one, Valley committed two crushing turnovers after making stops on the defensive end.
Hannah-Marie Lamle looked like she would be the hero for the Lady Warriors, diving inside to an open basket with 16 seconds left, but missed the bunny. The rebound for Valley, however, ended up thrown out of bounds, setting up Kuhn’s heroics.
The miscues late left Valley head coach Chris Kindig searching for an explanation.
“I thought the girls played hard and we had opportunities to win the basketball game,” Kindig said, pointing out a handful of missed free throws and turnovers. “You always look back at a game where you lose by one and there’s a lot of different things you could have done differently or whatever. But I was proud of these girls and I thought they showed some toughness and just didn’t make the plays down the stretch we needed to.”
Miller led Valley (20-4) with nine points in her final go-round as a senior. Asia O’Connor closed out her senior season with eight points and Olivia Trippiedi had six points. Sophie Bussard, the dynamic junior guard for the Lady Vikings, started hot but finished with just eight points, nine below her average. The senior trio leave Valley as the winningest class in program history, compiling a 92-14 record, a trip to the state finals, three sectional championships and three Three Rivers Conference championships.
Wawasee (13-10) is playing for its first sectional title since 2010.
Fairfield 40, NorthWood 32
Hoping to catch Fairfield thinking about championship dreams on a Saturday night, NorthWood had the favorites on the ropes in the fourth. Karlie Fielstra hit two threes in the fourth quarter, in each case giving NorthWood the lead, the second at 30-28. The mood of the gym, thinking upset for the second time, saw Fairfield respond.
The 12-2 Fairfield run to end the game had NorthWood miss its next six shots after the Fielstra three, while Fairfield got a three from Drea Lockwood, her second bomb of the quarter, and a pair of buckets from Erica Zook in rebuilding a 36-30 lead. Neely Trenshaw banked in a shot to get NorthWood back within four, but free throws from the Falcons closed out its third consecutive trip to the sectional finals.
“We had several possessions where it was 30-28 or 30-30 and we just came up empty on every one of them,” said NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder. “Lockwood hit a three, Zook finished around the basket, things they have been doing all year.”
Savannah Feenstra closed out her stellar career at NorthWood with 12 points, but unable to connect on a shot in the fourth in three open attempts. Fielstra settled on nine points on her three treys and Maddy Payne was limited to just four points, all coming in the third quarter.
“The expectations in this program is that we are supposed to compete for championships,” Yoder said. “We were down two to them the first time (47-34 loss on Dec. 19) at halftime. It just felt like if we played a better second half, and we did, than the first time, unfortunately, they just played a little bit better this time around.”
Zook led Fairfield with 12 points and Felicity Bontrager had nine points. Lockwood and Jenean Schwartz each had six points. NorthWood closes its season at 16-9.
“In my head, the game played out about as much as I thought,” said Fairfield head coach Brodie Garber. “Nip and tuck, nip and tuck, maybe we get a lead and I was just hoping at the end we would have enough lead to make some free throws at the end. Usually when we play NorthWood, this is pretty typical. It’s the same thing. Just a well-played sectional game.”
Fairfield (21-2) hasn’t won a sectional title since 2011, when it was in Class 2-A.