ARGOS - Eight minutes into Saturday's basketball game with Tippecanoe Valley, the Argos coaches suspected they had a blowout on their hands.

When Argos forward Caleb Andrews missed a three-pointer, retrieved the rebound and made a layup as time ran out the first quarter, the Argos coaches knew. His layup was one of four in the last 1:21 of the quarter as the Dragons upped their lead over Valley from 12-8 to 20-12 going into the second quarter.

"Up 20 at half," an Argos assistant coach barked when the players huddled at the end of the first quarter. "Up 20 at half."

Argos actually went up by 22 at half - 44-22 - and went on to win 82-64. Valley continued its worst start in school history, dropping to 2-7. Argos, ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press Class A poll, improved to 6-3.

The win over Valley was the first for Argos head coach Chuck Evans, who has been on the staff the last four years.

"This is probably the best all-around game we've played," he said. "I told the kids we played 24 minutes of solid basketball. The other eight weren't great, but didn't get us in a hole. We came ready to play. We took it to them, and we took them out of their game."

The Dragons shot 60 percent through the first three quarters, making 25 of 42 field goals. They put the game away in 42 seconds in the second quarter. Eric Stults hit a three-pointer, then Bill Redinger added two more treys for nine straight Argos points. What was a 24-16 lead at the 6:39 mark turned into a 33-16 lead with 5:57 left before halftime.

The three treys highlighted a 13-0 run that stretched the Argos lead to 37-16. The Dragons cruised the rest of the way, keeping their lead at 15 or more.

With Argos playing its best game, Valley picked a bad time to put together an uninspiring performance. The defense never slowed Argos, which shot 56 percent (29 of 52) for the game. Its offense committed 21 turnovers to Argos' 11.

"Give Argos a lot of credit," Valley coach Gregg Sciarra said. "They outscrapped us. Both teams we played (this weekend) got on the floor and got after us. We haven't liked the look on our faces. It seems like we're non-aggressive, for some reason.

"We're not a very good passing team. We aren't a very good ball-handling team. You put that together with some full-court pressure, you see what happens. Now I'd better be quiet before I get myself in trouble."

It got so bad for Valley that 6-foot-4 forward Rich Warren, one of Argos' last reserves, dunked not once but twice in the fourth quarter. These weren't like some of those dunks high school kids make, when they grab the rim and the ball kind of rolls on in. Warren threw his down.

Even though the Dragons led 66-43 after three quarters, their starting five stayed in until three minutes remained in the fourth, when the lead was 74-52. Sciarra understood why, since Argos was coming off a discouraging loss to Bethany Christian.

"They were playing well," he said. "Their band, community, everyone was having fun. A couple of slam dunks, everybody was doing well."

Less than 24 hours earlier, Bethany Christian beat Argos 64-50. The disgruntled Dragons used the Vikings as their punching bag.

"(Friday) night we didn't play well," Evans said. "We came back with a gut check, some deep discussions and refocused ourselves."

Forward JayDee Parker paced Valley with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while guard Eric Love added 13 points.

Stults, who came in averaging 22 points per game, led Argos with 20 points. Redinger added 19 and Scott Bailey 16.

Valley hosts Northfield Friday. [[In-content Ad]]