WINONA LAKE - Grace College's women's basketball hosted and fell to Huntington College Wednesday. The two teams were tied at 32 at halftime before Huntington won 69-64.

Grace fell to 3-13 overall and 0-3 in the MCC, while Huntington improved to 7-7 overall and 3-0 in the MCC.

Huntington senior forward Amy Bechtel, of Goshen, hit 7 of 12 field goals and 10 of 12 free throws to lead all scorers with 25 points.

Grace outrebounded Huntington 38-26, and both teams hit 21 field goals. The Foresters had a slight edge in points off turnovers, 21-18.

Where Huntington won the game was at the free throw line. Huntington hit 16 of 20 free throws (80 percent) in the second half, while Grace hit 7 of 12 (58 percent).

Amilia Devros led the Lancers in the scoring column with 18. Amy Doron and Tracey Mantegna added 15 and 12, respectively.

HUNTINGTON 69, GRACE 64

Huntington 32 37 - 69

Grace 32 32 - 64

Huntington - J. Bechtel 0-0 0-0 0, Harner 4-5 4-5 14, Gordan 0-5 1-2 1, Adams 3-4 0-0 6, Hart 0-3 7-10 7, Baer 4-7 0-0 9, Kelley 0-1 0-0 0, Krider 0-0 0-0 0, A. Bechtel 7-12 10-12 25, Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Collins 1-4 0-0 2, Sargent 2-4 1-3 5. Totals 21-47 23-32 69.

Grace - Devros 5-10 5-7 18, Arthur 3-8 0-0 6, Doron 5-9 5-6 15, Helmuth 3-6 2-2 10, Marquis 1-4 1-3 3, Rees 0-1 0-0 0, Mantegna 4-10 4-4 12. Totals 21-48 17-22 64.

Three-pointers - Huntington 4 (Harner 4, Baer 1, A. Bechtel), Grace 5 (Devros 3, Helmuth 2). Rebounds - Huntington 26 (A. Bechtel 7), Grace 38 (Doron 13). Turnovers - Huntington 16, Grace 21. Fouls - Huntington 22, Grace 21. Fouled out - none.

Wednesday in North Manchester

Manchester College's women's basketball team dropped to 5-7 overall with a 81-67 loss Wednesday. Sara Irish led the Spartans in scoring with 16 points. Trish Miller and Linda Cash added 13 and 10 points, respectively. Missy Hoppe pulled down 11 rebounds for Manchester. The Spartans will be in action again Saturday against Hanover.

BLUFFTON 81, MANCHESTER 67

Bluffton 31 50 - 81

Manchester 22 45 - 67

Bluffton - Helvey 0-6 3-6 3, Crall 2-6 4-7 9, Wood 5-11 5-6 17, Ascheimier 5-10 0-0 12, Snavely 8-17 6-12 22, James 1-6 0-0 2, Linehan 0-1 0-0 0, Siller 0-0 0-0 0, Bear 5-9 0-1 10, Robinson 2-6 2-2 6. Totals 28-72 20-34 81.

Manchester - Irish 4-13 5-7 16, Andrew 0-5 2-5 2, Miller 5-14 0-0 13, Cash 4-7 2-3 10, Hoppe 3-10 0-0 6, Borror 0-4 0-0 0, Mowery 0-0 0-0 0, Spearman 1-1 0-1 2, Eckert 4-8 4-5 12, Wideman 3-8 0-0 6. Totals 24-70 13-21 67.

Three-pointers - Bluffton 5 (Aschemier 2, Wood 2, Crall1), Manchester 6 (Irish 3, Miller 3). Rebounds - Bluffton 58 (Snavely 11), Manchester 44 (Hoppe 11). Turnovers - Bluffton 14, Manchester 18. Fouls - Bluffton 17, Manchester 27. Fouled out - Irish, Hoppe.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Wednesday in Bluffton, Ohio

Manchester College's men's basketball team defeated host Bluffton College 85-62 in an HCAC contest Wednesday. Doc Nash led all scorers with 17 points. Jeremy Neely and Eric Swan added 15 and 13 points, respectively, for the Spartans. Manchester, now 10-4, will be in action again Saturday at Hanover.

MANCHESTER 85, BLUFFTON 62

Manchester 50 35 - 85

Bluffton 34 28 - 62

Manchester - Swan 5-13 2-2 13, Nash 6-7 0-0 17, Carver 1-3 0-0 2, Neely 5-12 2-2 15, Harris 2-5 0-0 5, Lee 6-9 0-2 12, Query 0-0 0-0 0, Chaney 0-1 0-0 0, Scott 1-3 0-0 2, Timberlake 0-1 2-2 2, Haynes 4-6 0-0 10, Enyeart 3-6 1-1 7. Totals 33-66 7-9 85.

Bluffton - Cramer 0-2 0-0 0, Coole 7-12 2-2 6, Roberts 5-13 0-3 10, Elsass 4-7 2-2 13, Sheldon 2-6 0-0 5, Arroyo 0-1 0-0 0, Parker 1-2 3-4 5, Julian 2-3 0-0 4, Overmyer 3-10 7-11 62. Totals 24-56 7-11 62.

Three-pointers - Manchester 12 (Nash 5, Neely 3, Haynes 2, Swan 1, Harris 1), Bluffton 7 (Elsass 3, Overmyer 3, Sheldon 1). Rebounds - Manchester 33 (Enyeart 5, Swan 5, Lee 5), Bluffton 35 (Coole 8). Turnovers - Manchester 7, Bluffton 14. Fouls - Manchester 15, Bluffton 9. Fouled out - none.

With Wheel, Patrick Rolls Toward 500

By Jeff Holsinger, Times-Union Sports Editor

AKRON -ÊBill Patrick did not invent the wheel, although he has the wheel to thank for his success.

With the wheel, he has never had a losing season in 31 years of coaching high school varsity basketball.

With the wheel, he could get his 500th win Friday in Tippecanoe Valley's home game against Northfield. Valley is 7-3, while Northfield is 3-5. Patrick is 499-190 (.724) in 31 years of coaching.

Players who have played for Patrick, opposing coaches and fans of Patrick can tell you about the wheel.

The wheel is the offense Patrick ran when he coached in the 1960s.

The wheel is the offense Patrick runs in 2000.

In the wheel, a double pick is set. The guards and forwards are cutting. The center has the option to step out for a shot. Double picks are set, and before you know it, a Patrick player makes an easy basket on the weak side.

"It's kind of a rotation," Patrick said. "Everybody moves in one direction. If you watch it from up high, I guess it would kind of look like a wheel going around."

Coaching basketball is not reinventing the wheel. It's only improving the wheel. Patrick does this by watching Bobby Knight's practices at Indiana University, by reading books by coaches like Knight and former UCLA coach John Wooden and by attending coaching clinics.

"Most kids don't want to play defense," Patrick said. "If you make four or five passes and the other team has to play defense, eventually they will break down. The offense we run, you can walk out and tell the other team what offense you will run. If you can do it well enough, they can't defend it. If we make four or five passes, we have four or five picks in there, we will end up with a layup.

"It's not anything new. There's only so many things you can do in basketball, anyway. The biggest thing is, we've kept things simple. We've done only a few things and tried to do them well."

The 61-year-old Patrick is not comfortable talking about No. 500 and insists it is everyone besides him - family, fans and media - who is making a big to-do. But facts are facts: Patrick will become just the 20th Indiana high school boys basketball coach to reach 500 wins in a career.

"Personally, I feel coaching 31 years and never having a losing season is more of an accomplishment," he said. "I doubt if there are very many coaches who have done that. There probably wouldn't be very many above 20 seasons."

When Patrick began coaching varsity basketball in Sidney in 1963, he went in with the notion he would coach until he had his first losing season. He has yet to have that losing season. His worst record is 11-10.

"I'm not a very good loser," he said. "I probably could have handled a losing season, but I couldn't have dealt with losing over a period of time."

Is there ever an excuse to have a losing season? Injuries? Not enough talent?

"I always thought if you put enough time in and worked hard enough, you could find ways to win," he said. "Obviously it's not true, because there are some outstanding coaches who have had losing seasons.

"Over a period of 31 years, you would think somewhere along the line you would be in a situation - and we were - where you could have a losing season. I don't think coaches put enough emphasis on everybody who's connected. Some coaches forget the little things. Players and coaches are at the top, but managers are important, and cheerleaders can make a big difference. Parents of players. Fans. You lose one or two out of that group, you will be in trouble.

"Everybody added together, you can get a lot done."

Patrick won 478 coaching for Whitko schools. He has won 21 since taking over at Tippecanoe Valley in 1998. He left Whitko in 1995 after a run-in with Whitko principal Tim Holcomb and athletic director Greg Roach over assistant coaches. Patrick is gone from Whitko, and so are Holcomb and Roach.

Had he gotten a job he felt was his, he would have won all 499 in the Tippecanoe Valley School Corp.

Patrick coached at Burket Junior High in the 1950s and was told he was a shoo-in for either the Mentone or Akron high school jobs when they opened. They opened, but Mentone wanted Roger Bridge, who was coming off a successful season at Etna Green. Akron chose to go with Floyd Henson.

Out of luck with those jobs, Patrick was named coach at Sidney High School in 1963. He won his first game 83-61 over Leesburg on Nov. 1. Sidney finished 13-9, owning its first winning record in nine years.

Every school Patrick went to had a losing season the year before. He began coaching South Whitley in 1967. South Whitley, which had been 6-15 the year before, finished 15-9 under Patrick. The year before he came to Tippecanoe Valley, the Vikings were 6-15. They finished 14-7 in Patrick's first year.

Surely there must be a secret to winning every year for 31 years. He says there is.

"It's the mental part of the game," he said. "As far as X's and O's, that's down the list. Kids have to be convinced they can win. That's the most important thing every time they take the floor. You don't play games on paper.

"We've never played a game I didn't think we would win if we did what we were supposed to do."

Patrick could have left a Whitko school with fewer than 700 students for places like Huntington, Seymour or Mishawaka.

He chose not to. He was born in Sidney. He loves living in Sidney.

"I turned down several bigger high school jobs," he said. "I didn't want to move my family all over the state. I didn't want to get into recruiting at college.

"I liked it where I was. There was no reason to go elsewhere."

His best memory is leading an upstart Whitko team to the state finals in 1991. Unlike most Patrick teams, this team lost its fair share of games and finished 17-9, but the Wildcats got hot during the tournament and put Whitko on the map with its semistate win over Marion and march to the Final Four.

"If you're going to pick out one (memory), going to the Final Four," he said. "Growing up in Indiana, that's a dream to be there."

The wheel has stayed the same, and so have his policies.

Hair. Hair has always been a big thing with Patrick. In 1963, the hair had to be above the collar - although long hair wasn't fashionable then anyway - or a player couldn't play. In 2000, the hair has to be off the collar, or the player can't play. No mustaches. No beards.

But more things have changed than have stayed the same.

Players have more athletic ability now. The three-point shot. Foul shots. The five-second count out front. A more physical game. The number of high schools, from 700 to 300. Class basketball.

These are changes that stand out to Patrick.

"Class basketball is a major change, not for the better," he said. "There used to be a lot more community involvement in basketball. Twenty years ago, the majority of the student body went to the game. That's not true now. Now you have jobs, cars and parties. You didn't have to compete with college basketball, because they played Saturday afternoon.

"I think it was easier to coach then than now. Now it's tough to get kids to put time in during the offseason. I don't know if kids are different, but the family situation is different. There are a lot more divorces, a lot more problems in the home. You didn't have to deal with those things then."

He is glad he returned to coaching after the way he left Whitko in 1995. Now he gets to coach alongside son Chad. Chad is so active on the sideline that some people leave believing he is the coach.

"He knows the game," the father said. "He relays during the first part of the game what we want done. We're doing it together. If we run a special play, that's Chad's department."

When hired, Patrick told Valley he would coach three to five years and says this is still the plan. He's in year two.

"I've enjoyed the two years here," he said. "Obviously, I was bitter about the situation at Whitko. This time when I get out, I will feel a lot better than before."

Besides players believing they can win, Patrick says three statistics determine if his team wins or loses: Keeping turnovers under 12. Shooting more free throws than the opposing team attempts. Grabbing at least 60 percent of the rebounds.

He knows the perfect way to win No. 500 over Northfield.

"No turnovers, no missed free throws, no missed field goals and don't let the other team score," he joked.

He also knows how he will celebrate: He won't. At least he claims he won't.

"I'll go home and go over some things for the game with Caston the next day," he said. "I'll go watch an eighth-grade tournament at 9 o'clock in the morning."

One guarantee: Come 9 o'clock at night against Caston, the wheel will be running once again.

Tippecanoe Valley (7-3) hosts Northfield (3-5) Friday with a 6:15 p.m. junior varsity start time. Should Valley beat Northfield in the varsity game, Patrick will win his 500th game. A ceremony will take place after the game. All fans are enouraged to stay, and all former Patrick players are encouraged to attend the game and ceremony. Also, should he win No. 500 this weekend, an open house will be held at the Tippecanoe Valley High School gym from 2-4 p.m. Jan. 23. Fans and former players are encouraged to attend this as well. [[In-content Ad]]