Tippecanoe Valley’s Hayley Backus (20) stands in to take a charge from Lakeland’s Bailey Hartsough late in the fourth quarter of a 47-46 win at the West Noble Holiday Shootout. (Photo by Mike Deak)

LIGONIER – After playing just one true road game in the past month, Tippecanoe Valley took to the road for a day-night doubleheader at Saturday’s West Noble Holiday Shootout. The Lady Vikes had to rally twice to claim girls basketball wins against Lakeland, 47-46, and West Noble, 42-36, to escape unscathed.

The Chess Match

Valley’s existence against Lakeland mimicked a chess match, where it still had its queen, but her defense was being worn down by a healthy opponent. In the case of the third quarter, Valley’s queen – Sophie Bussard – was on the bench with three fouls while Lakeland made a commanding 12-1 Laker run to end the quarter, mostly with Bussard off the court. Lakeland was in total command at 39-25.

Bussard, however, started to take over the court in the fourth quarter, scoring a pair of buckets to get the Vikes within eight, then willing Valley to just two points down at 45-43 after hitting a shortie. Down 46-45 after a pair of Bussard free throws, the senior guard was on the receiving end of the outlet off a Valley steal and hit a floater to give Valley’s first lead of the second half at 47-46.

Hayley Backus then made a second monster defensive play for Valley on Lakeland’s response, standing in to take a charge on Bailey Hartsough. A final gasp from Hartsough in the waning seconds fell short. Checkmate.

“We knew coming into this it was going to be tough, two tough opponents,” Tippecanoe Valley coach Chris Kindig said. “When you’re committing turnovers and losing their three-point shooters, you’ll see a 14-point deficit against good teams like Lakeland. But credit our girls, we hung in there and kept fighting. Sophie is just a special player, but Hayley with big defensive play and credit Jillian (Walls) for coming back in after rolling her ankle and giving it everything she could.”

Bussard scored 16 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter. Wagner had seven points and Makenzie Woodcox added six points. Valley managed the comeback despite a subpar overall showing from the free throw line, going 11-29 in the contest. The team was just 2-11 from the line in the first half.

“I thought we came into this game with some momentum beating Winamac and Whitko, but you won’t beat many teams missing 18 free throws,” Kindig said. “We’ll see now what we’re made of down the stretch with some tough conference games. This was a good test for us.”

Hartsough ended with 18 points to lead the Lakers and Keirstin Roose finished with 10 points and had a pair of key offensive rebounds to spur the run in the third quarter.

Making A Statement

After expending a ton of energy to escape Lakeland in game one, Valley came back against the hosts in the nightcap and added a second statement game to its résumé.

Valley didn’t claim a lead until the fourth quarter, where it trailed 28-25 but pulled ahead late. Bussard scored nine of her team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter, and Backus again stepped up with eight points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Wagner tossed in eight points while Emma Craig and Walls combined for 11 points.

West Noble (11-3) split its two games, beating Concord 48-45 in the morning session. The Minutemen (10-5) would come back and beat Lakeland 58-51 in overtime, the Lakers falling to 11-5 overall. The JV tourney had West Noble double up Concord 48-24 in the championship.

Valley (12-3) will return to action Jan. 3 at Northfield.