Manchester Girls Beat Valley, Grab TRC Title
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
AKRON - An inadvertent whistle gave the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball new life with 4.7 seconds left in its Saturday night tilt against Manchester.
Viking Kara Kramer raced down the floor and nailed a three-pointer to draw Valley to within two points at 48-46 before the whistle.
Manchester's Christa Peden quickly extinguished any glimmer of hope by draining two free throws to give the Squires a 50-46 win and the Three Rivers Conference championship.
Both Manchester and Valley entered Saturday night's game with unblemished 6-0 conference records.
Ironically, Friday night's boys contest between the two schools was determined by a pair of late free throws and much like the boys contest, the girls were involved in an old-fashioned barn burner.
The Squires clung to a one-point lead before Peden connected on a three-point play with 2:29 left in the game after being fouled by Valley's Heather Rathbun to extend Manchester's lead to 41-37.
Rathbun was saddled with foul trouble all night as Manchester used the powerful one-two low post punch of Peden and fellow sophomore Libby Pattison to wrest control of the game.
Pattison, who experienced foul trouble of her own, racked up a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds while seeing limited action.
With Pattison in foul trouble, Peden led the Squires in scoring with 16 points and five rebounds.
The firm of Pattison and Peden ruled the court in the first quarter scoring all 12 of the Squires first quarter points.
While Manchester stalked the interior, Valley stayed in the contest with a healthy diet of outside shooting. The Vikings connected on 6 of 13 from beyond the three-point arc with Kramer and Chelsy Rhoades each draining two trifectas.
Rhoades scored the Vikings last four points of the quarter, including a three pointer from deep in the left hand corner to give Valley a slim 31-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
After Peden's three-point play gave the Squires the lead, Manchester did something they hadn't done well all year - hit free throws.
As a team, the Squires ended the evening 16 of 19 from the charity stripe. Manchester has struggled from the free throw line and averages less than 60 percent from the line for the season.
Even when Manchester missed from the line it worked to the Squires benefit. Pattison missed the front end of a one-and-one try with 29.1 seconds left in the game and Manchester leading 45-43.
The free throw took an awkward carom and resulted in a jump ball that kept the ball on Manchester's end of the court.
Seconds earlier, it was Valley that experienced a clock malfunction. After Kramer was fouled with over 30 seconds remaining, the clock ran down before being stopped at the 29.9 second mark, essentially nullifying the late, inadvertent whistle.
Kramer connected on both free throws and finished with a game-high 18 points and five rebounds.
In a night filled with activity at the scorer's bench, Manchester experienced technical difficulty before the game began.
Due to an error in the scorer's book, six starters were listed for the Squires, forcing usual starter Sarah Purdy to sit in place of Cami Naragon.
Purdy came off the bench to score seven points while Naragon finished with two.
Valley's Holli Jackson was the only other player in double digit scoring for the Vikings with 10 points, six of which came in the final period.
Freshman Hannah Krueger was solid off the bench for the Vikings scoring seven points on 3 of 4 shooting before fouling out.
Rhoades ended her night with nine points and three rebounds.
The Vikings connected on just two field goals in the final two minutes after Manchester head coach Mark Underwood called a timeout and has his team switch from man to man defense to a zone.
"We just wanted to give them a bit of a different look. We felt they might have been getting a bit too comfortable out there," said Underwood. "I don't pretend to have all the answers. Sometimes the things that you try work out and sometimes they don't."
The Squires came into the game with a goal of not only winning the TRC but also avenging a 65-14 loss in Manchester's last trip to Akron.
"Tonight these girls were ready. They remember the last time they were here, getting embarrassed, in a totally lopsided game. We had a lot of young kids playing that night and we had some of those kids playing tonight," said Underwood.
In fact, Manchester boasts just three seniors on its roster, none of which played Saturday night.
For Valley, the turnaround time is short as they host Peru tonight. The Tigers are the Vikings opening opponent in sectional play and despite a 4-13 record will gain an advantage by playing Valley right before the tournament begins.
"What we have to do is come back, stick together, play as a team and finish out the regular season. Yes this is disappointing but we can still make something good happen out of the season," said Valley head coach Gary Teel.
The loss to Manchester is one of several this season that came in the waning minutes for Valley that includes losses to Central Noble, Winamac and in overtime to North Judson.
Valley, 10-8 overall and 6-1 in the TRC, host Peru tonight for a 7:45 p.m. tipoff.
The Squires, 16-2 overall and 7-0 in the TRC, host South Adams at 7:45 p.m.
Both games are the team's senior nights.
MANCHESTER 50, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 46
Manchester 12 8 10 20 - 50
T. Valley 10 8 13 15 - 46
Manchester FG FT R S Pts.
*Thomas 2-8 2-2 4 3 6
*Naragaon 1-3 0-0 0 1 2
*Siebrase 2-5 0-0 1 2 4
*Pattison 5-10 3-5 12 0 13
*Peden 5-8 6-6 5 1 16
Purdy 1-5 5-6 2 3 7
Andersen 0-1 0-0 1 1 0
Vogel 1-4 0-0 2 0 2
Totals 17-44 16-19 27 11 50
T. Valley FG FT R S Pts.
*Jackson 3-5 3-4 2 0 10
*Kramer 4-16 8-8 5 3 18
*Rhoades 3-10 1-2 3 2 9
*Sitts 1-4 0-0 2 2 2
*Rathbun 0-1 0-0 3 0 0
Krueger 3-4 0-1 2 1 7
Rohrer 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
Moore 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Totals 14-42 12-15 20 9 46
Three-point goals - Manchester 0-6 (Thomas 0-2, Siebrase 0-1, Purdy 0-2, Vogel 0-1); T. Valley 6-13 (Jackson 1-1, Kramer 2-5, Rhoades 2-4, Krueger 1-2, Rohrer 0-1). Turnovers - Manchester 17, T. Valley 18. Team Fouls - Manchester 17, T. Valley 17. Fouled out - Rathbun (T. Valley), Krueger (T. Valley), Purdy (Manchester).
JV -ÊT. Valley 27, Manchester 23
Manchester scoring - Audrey Johnson 7, Mercedes Lockhart 5
Valley scoring - Kayla Newman 7, Taylor Stoll 5, Chelsea Culp 5, Megan Ramsey 4, Jessica Rice 3, Brittany Hoffer 2, Ashley Hendrix 1 [[In-content Ad]]
AKRON - An inadvertent whistle gave the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball new life with 4.7 seconds left in its Saturday night tilt against Manchester.
Viking Kara Kramer raced down the floor and nailed a three-pointer to draw Valley to within two points at 48-46 before the whistle.
Manchester's Christa Peden quickly extinguished any glimmer of hope by draining two free throws to give the Squires a 50-46 win and the Three Rivers Conference championship.
Both Manchester and Valley entered Saturday night's game with unblemished 6-0 conference records.
Ironically, Friday night's boys contest between the two schools was determined by a pair of late free throws and much like the boys contest, the girls were involved in an old-fashioned barn burner.
The Squires clung to a one-point lead before Peden connected on a three-point play with 2:29 left in the game after being fouled by Valley's Heather Rathbun to extend Manchester's lead to 41-37.
Rathbun was saddled with foul trouble all night as Manchester used the powerful one-two low post punch of Peden and fellow sophomore Libby Pattison to wrest control of the game.
Pattison, who experienced foul trouble of her own, racked up a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds while seeing limited action.
With Pattison in foul trouble, Peden led the Squires in scoring with 16 points and five rebounds.
The firm of Pattison and Peden ruled the court in the first quarter scoring all 12 of the Squires first quarter points.
While Manchester stalked the interior, Valley stayed in the contest with a healthy diet of outside shooting. The Vikings connected on 6 of 13 from beyond the three-point arc with Kramer and Chelsy Rhoades each draining two trifectas.
Rhoades scored the Vikings last four points of the quarter, including a three pointer from deep in the left hand corner to give Valley a slim 31-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
After Peden's three-point play gave the Squires the lead, Manchester did something they hadn't done well all year - hit free throws.
As a team, the Squires ended the evening 16 of 19 from the charity stripe. Manchester has struggled from the free throw line and averages less than 60 percent from the line for the season.
Even when Manchester missed from the line it worked to the Squires benefit. Pattison missed the front end of a one-and-one try with 29.1 seconds left in the game and Manchester leading 45-43.
The free throw took an awkward carom and resulted in a jump ball that kept the ball on Manchester's end of the court.
Seconds earlier, it was Valley that experienced a clock malfunction. After Kramer was fouled with over 30 seconds remaining, the clock ran down before being stopped at the 29.9 second mark, essentially nullifying the late, inadvertent whistle.
Kramer connected on both free throws and finished with a game-high 18 points and five rebounds.
In a night filled with activity at the scorer's bench, Manchester experienced technical difficulty before the game began.
Due to an error in the scorer's book, six starters were listed for the Squires, forcing usual starter Sarah Purdy to sit in place of Cami Naragon.
Purdy came off the bench to score seven points while Naragon finished with two.
Valley's Holli Jackson was the only other player in double digit scoring for the Vikings with 10 points, six of which came in the final period.
Freshman Hannah Krueger was solid off the bench for the Vikings scoring seven points on 3 of 4 shooting before fouling out.
Rhoades ended her night with nine points and three rebounds.
The Vikings connected on just two field goals in the final two minutes after Manchester head coach Mark Underwood called a timeout and has his team switch from man to man defense to a zone.
"We just wanted to give them a bit of a different look. We felt they might have been getting a bit too comfortable out there," said Underwood. "I don't pretend to have all the answers. Sometimes the things that you try work out and sometimes they don't."
The Squires came into the game with a goal of not only winning the TRC but also avenging a 65-14 loss in Manchester's last trip to Akron.
"Tonight these girls were ready. They remember the last time they were here, getting embarrassed, in a totally lopsided game. We had a lot of young kids playing that night and we had some of those kids playing tonight," said Underwood.
In fact, Manchester boasts just three seniors on its roster, none of which played Saturday night.
For Valley, the turnaround time is short as they host Peru tonight. The Tigers are the Vikings opening opponent in sectional play and despite a 4-13 record will gain an advantage by playing Valley right before the tournament begins.
"What we have to do is come back, stick together, play as a team and finish out the regular season. Yes this is disappointing but we can still make something good happen out of the season," said Valley head coach Gary Teel.
The loss to Manchester is one of several this season that came in the waning minutes for Valley that includes losses to Central Noble, Winamac and in overtime to North Judson.
Valley, 10-8 overall and 6-1 in the TRC, host Peru tonight for a 7:45 p.m. tipoff.
The Squires, 16-2 overall and 7-0 in the TRC, host South Adams at 7:45 p.m.
Both games are the team's senior nights.
MANCHESTER 50, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 46
Manchester 12 8 10 20 - 50
T. Valley 10 8 13 15 - 46
Manchester FG FT R S Pts.
*Thomas 2-8 2-2 4 3 6
*Naragaon 1-3 0-0 0 1 2
*Siebrase 2-5 0-0 1 2 4
*Pattison 5-10 3-5 12 0 13
*Peden 5-8 6-6 5 1 16
Purdy 1-5 5-6 2 3 7
Andersen 0-1 0-0 1 1 0
Vogel 1-4 0-0 2 0 2
Totals 17-44 16-19 27 11 50
T. Valley FG FT R S Pts.
*Jackson 3-5 3-4 2 0 10
*Kramer 4-16 8-8 5 3 18
*Rhoades 3-10 1-2 3 2 9
*Sitts 1-4 0-0 2 2 2
*Rathbun 0-1 0-0 3 0 0
Krueger 3-4 0-1 2 1 7
Rohrer 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
Moore 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Totals 14-42 12-15 20 9 46
Three-point goals - Manchester 0-6 (Thomas 0-2, Siebrase 0-1, Purdy 0-2, Vogel 0-1); T. Valley 6-13 (Jackson 1-1, Kramer 2-5, Rhoades 2-4, Krueger 1-2, Rohrer 0-1). Turnovers - Manchester 17, T. Valley 18. Team Fouls - Manchester 17, T. Valley 17. Fouled out - Rathbun (T. Valley), Krueger (T. Valley), Purdy (Manchester).
JV -ÊT. Valley 27, Manchester 23
Manchester scoring - Audrey Johnson 7, Mercedes Lockhart 5
Valley scoring - Kayla Newman 7, Taylor Stoll 5, Chelsea Culp 5, Megan Ramsey 4, Jessica Rice 3, Brittany Hoffer 2, Ashley Hendrix 1 [[In-content Ad]]