No. 5 NorthWood Routs Valley

NorthWood’s Alea Minnich and Tippecanoe Valley’s Emma Craig battle for a loose ball during a game in Nappanee Tuesday. (Photos by James Costello)
NAPPANEE — Opposite Wawasee on Saturday, NorthWood got most of its scoring done in the paint. The Black Swish got it done in the backcourt against another Sectional 20 opponent Tuesday night.
Junior guards Alea Minnich and Kendall Miller finished with a combined 27 points versus Tippecanoe Valley’s zone defense, and the fifth-ranked Black Swish used a dominant 31-4 second half to turn what looked to be an exciting match-up between sectional rivals into a 49-23 blowout at home at the Panther Pit.
“Alea came out and hit some big shots early. We couldn’t get anybody else rolling from the arch in the first half, but we kept shooting with a lot of confidence,” recalled NorthWood coach Adam Yoder. “I think Reagan (Hartman) made two in the second half, Kendall got some mid-range jumpers, got to the foul line. Karlie Fielstra does such a great job distributing the basketball, and our post players are such good passers. Our post players are smart. They know when there’s three people in the lane they’re going to have to either get it up quick or look for shooters, and I thought we did that tonight.”
“You know you kind of have to pick your poison with NorthWood. Obviously, you’ve got to stop their post, but if their perimeter shooters are shooting well — which they did a lot better in the second half — it’s a tough match-up for anybody for the most part,” said Valley coach Chris Kindig. “Give them credit. I thought they came out in the second half with a lot more intensity, and we weren’t really able to match that.”
A 9-2 second period by Valley put the visitors out front 19-18 at halftime. But star guard Sidney Wagner was saddled with her third foul a little over a minute into the third quarter, and NorthWood’s man-to-man defense put on a clinic. Even when Wagner returned with around three-and-a-half minutes left in the period, it made little difference — the Panthers held the Vikings to a woeful 2-of-18 conversions from the floor and never once sent them to the line, holding them scoreless over the third and limiting them to just four points for the entire half.

Sidney Wagner and Kate Rulli watch Wagner’s shot in the first half Tuesday.
“I thought with Wagner getting her third foul, that hurt. And then we went man and had some success,” explained Yoder. “We kind of got the ball rolling and it kind of snowballed on them, but I thought our kids did an excellent job of moving and talking and defending the way they know they can. We went a lot of zone the other night against Wawasee, and we challenged the kids tonight that we wanted to play a lot of man tonight. And I thought against a really good Valley team with a super player like Wagner, super shooters, good players inside, we did an excellent job.”
“Our ball movement wasn’t where it needed to be in the second half, so we didn’t really get what I thought were a lot of great shots. He turned up the defense a little bit, and it was a struggle that second half,” said Kindig. “I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in scoring four points in a second half. That was tough.”
The Black Swish got a double-digit advantage with Hartman’s corner triple on a Miller drive-and-kick with 1:20 remaining in the third period, and they had pushed that cushion out to 20 at 39-19 with Miller’s 15-footer on a Minnich helper with a little under five minutes remaining. ‘Wood converted at a better-than 50 percent clip from the floor during the dominant half, knocking down 10-of-19 shots from the floor and 5-of-6 free throws.
And the home team tallied just eight turnovers on the night against against a trapping Valley defense known for turning teams over and getting offense off the fast break.

Kendall Miller looks to score inside while Kaydence Mellot, right, and Signey Wagner defend.
“We’ll take eight a game. Under 10 is awesome. I don’t care who you’re playing. We’ll take that every night,” Yoder said.
Valley got nine points from Wagner, who also finished with six rebounds, two steals and two assists. Jillian Walls scored six points, and Emma Craig chipped in four rebounds, three assists and a steal but scored only one point as the Vikings slid to 12-5 with their second-straight loss. Valley plays a Three Rivers Conference game at Rochester Saturday.
“I think the really important game right now for us is that we’ve got an important conference game on Saturday. This game was one of those where you would like to play well; you’d like to have a good showing. I’ve said this before, but if I had my choice about winning today or winning Saturday, I’ll take Saturday every time,” said Kindig.
“We just can’t continue to play offensively like this and expect to beat anybody on our schedule. I don’t know what we can do in three days, but we’re sure going to try to fix it here and come ready to play on Saturday.”
NorthWood moved to 18-2 with its 14th straight win. The Panthers will put their 5-0 Northern Lakes Conference record on the line at Northridge Saturday.