Peru Outlasts Valley 111-107 In 2 OT
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊThe date was Dec. 15, 1998, and the boys basketball team had just lost 80-62, but the losing coach guaranteed his team could play with the winning team.
Peru had the 80, Tippecanoe Valley the 62, and the coach was Bill Patrick.
"Peru is a good basketball team, no question about it," he said that December night. "But I think we're every bit as good as they are, and I think we can play with them in the sectional."
Patrick was not lugging a crystal ball under his arm at the time, but he predicted the future 2-1/2 months in advance.
Tippecanoe Valley (14-6) drew No. 9 Peru (17-3) in Tuesday's first round of the Whitko 3A Sectional. The Vikings played with the Tigers, all right. They tied them 82-82 at regulation and 93-93 after one overtime before losing 111-107 in double overtime.
The two high school teams did in 40 minutes what NBA teams frequently now fail to do in 48: score 100 points. Up-tempo basketball has been Peru's calling card all year; the Vikings nearly beat them at their own game.
Three words were said by fans, coaches and players after this one: "Best game ever."
"I bet I've had 50 people tell me already it was the best game they have ever seen," Tippecanoe Valley assistant coach Chad Patrick, also the son of Bill Patrick, said. "That's the best basketball game from start to finish I've seen in my 27 years."
Coach Rob Irwin's Carroll team played Whitko in the second sectional game immediately following. No matter.
"I watched the whole thing," Irwin, a former Patrick assistant, said. "That was something, wasn't it?"
Said Valley senior point guard Jarvis Shepherd, who hit four three-pointers and scored 28, "You really couldn't ask for a better game, a sectional game, two overtimes. Unbelievable. We knew we could run with anybody.
"It was probably our best game of the year. We played our hearts out."
Along with their coach, the Valley fans must had a premonition, because at 5 p.m. -Êan hour before game time - much of Valley's seating block was full. They stood and roared from start to finish once the game started -Êand that's just the adults.
Who won depended on who touched the ball last.
Junior Brandon Eaton led all scorers with 32 as he and Shepherd, Valley's starting backcourt, combined for 60. Five Peru players scored between 17 and 21 points. Bench player Brandon Jones led with 21 and was followed by Brian Wiles with 20, Nathan Curtis with 18, Casey Mellady with 18 and Josh Ulery with 17.
Valley led 19-17 with 40 seconds left in the first quarter. The Vikings led one more time in regulation: 82-81 with 13.4 seconds left.
Eaton hit a jumper at the free-throw line on an assist from Noah Silveus to give Valley the 82-81 lead. The Vikings looked like they would sneak away with the win until a foul with 3.8 seconds left sent Curtis to the free-throw line.
Chad Patrick, who typically coaches the team as much as his dad, caved. He couldn't bear to watch, choosing to sit on the bench and cover his eyes with his hands. Curtis missed the first. He hit the second, and after Valley failed to score, the teams went into overtime tied 82-82.
They traded baskets throughout the first overtime. Eaton buried a three to put Valley ahead 85-82 with 3:17 left. No matter. Wiles hit a three-pointer 11 seconds later to tie it at 85-85.
On and on they went, the two teams trading punches, each unsuccessfully landing the knockout blow.
But Valley began fighting two battles instead of one. The first was against Peru, the second against attrition. The Vikings survived for a second overtime, but when the first overtime ended at 93-93, Eaton and starting center Josh Cumberland had fouled out.
Cumberland, who scored 14 on perfect shooting -Ê4 of 4 field goals and 6 of 6 free throws - fouled out nine seconds into the first overtime. He was the one player on the floor to finish with a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds.
Eaton fouled out with 53 seconds left in the overtime, and all he took with him were his 32 points, seven rebounds and handfuls of steals and assists.
Valley's scoring threats were down to Shepherd and Eric Prater in the final overtime. Prater, who scored 14 to go along with six rebounds and five steals, would join Cumberland and Eaton on the bench with his fifth foul.
And then there was one.
Only one Valley reserve - Silveus - saw much playing time off the bench through the first quarters. Now Valley had four bench players -Êanother starter, Craig Kuhn, fouled out in regulation - to go along with Shepherd.
Only one Peru scorer in double figures -ÊMellady - had fouled out. He finished with 18. But Peru still had Wiles, Curtis, Ulery and Jones.
"The end result was Peru was deeper and had more players to go to," Bill Patrick said. "Foul trouble hurt us."
And it was Jones who took over in the second overtime.
With Peru holding a 99-98 lead with 2:33 left, Jones scored six unanswered to make it 105-98 with 1:31. He capped his six-point outburst by grabbing a rebound, dribbling upcourt and scoring inside.
Valley got no closer than four the rest of the way.
Shepherd scored eight in the second overtime, but with 60 points on the bench in Cumberland, Eaton and Prater, the Vikings ran out of offensive firepower.
"If we would have had one of the four (starters who fouled out)," Chad Patrick moaned afterward. "That's all we needed. One of the four."
Said Shepherd: "People got into foul trouble, and that's what hurt us."
Peru advanced, thanks to 10 points from Jones and 10-of-10 free-throw shooting in the final overtime.
Every time Peru looked ready to put Valley away, the Vikings responded.
Peru ended the first half with an Ulery three-pointer in the final seconds to go up 47-40 - talk about taking momentum into the locker room, this was the Tigers' biggest lead of the first half - but Shepherd opened the second half with a three-pointer to cut the lead to 47-43.
Peru went up 58-46 with 5:04 left in the third. Back came Valley's offensive monster at the guard position. Eaton and Shepherd hit back-to-back three-pointers to trim the lead to 58-52 exactly one minute later.
The Tigers took a 73-61 lead with 6:14 in the fourth quarter, and onlookers said it was over, Valley was out of gas. The first time the two teams met, Valley trailed just 55-51 with seven minutes left, but Peru went on a 25-11 run to win by 18. Same thing was supposedly happening again.
"Even then," Bill Patrick said of the 12-point deficit, "I still believed we could win and we would win."
Peru, not Valley, faltered this time. The Tigers - a team with five senior starters -Êcommitted turnovers and missed free throws at key times.
Eaton, who scored 11 of his 32 in the fourth, was at it again, scoring five in a 7-0 run to bring Valley back to 73-68 with 5:14 left.
Then Peru melted, handing Valley the ball with unforced turnovers -Êtraveling, palming calls -Êat the 3:22, 2:35 and 2:13 marks. Peru led 79-73 at the time of the first turnover; at the time of the last turnover, the Tigers led 79-77.
A steal and layup by Ulery pushed Peru's lead to 81-77 with 1:33 left. Valley's Silveus, who scored four, scored two of them with 1:15 to go to make it 81-79.
Instead of turnovers, Peru missed free throws in the final minute. Ulery and Mellady each missed the front ends of one-and-ones in the final 1:01. Eaton hit 1 of 2 free throws to trim Peru's lead to 81-80, and neither team scored again until Eaton put Valley ahead 82-81 with 13.4 seconds left.
Peru, which hit 27 of 39 free throws (69 percent) for the game, hit only 5 of 11 (45 percent) in the fourth quarter.
"We had turnovers in critical situations," Peru coach Terry Heavilon said. "That's disappointing, because with a senior-laden team, that shouldn't happen. Had we made a couple of free throws in the fourth quarter, there wouldn't have been an overtime.
"It all goes back to the tournament being a whole different thing. There is an ungodly amount of pressure on these kids. It's different once you get in the tournament. I don't know what else you can say."
Eaton and Shepherd poured in points by the bucketful. The Vikings made 31 free throws to Peru's 27. The Vikings committed fewer turnovers, 23-25. Rebounding was a wash. When Peru made a run, Valley answered every time.
These were reasons why Bill and Chad Patrick could tell you with straight faces after the game while disappointed to see the season end, they left feeling more than good about the effort.
"You couldn't ask for anything more," Bill Patrick said. "Our players gave us everything they had. They left everything on the court. Sure, we could have played better defense, but I'm not gonna be critical when we play that hard.
"It had to be a great game for the fans. How could the fans ever ask for a better game?"
Said Chad Patrick: "Nothing else. There was nothing else we could have done."
No. 9 PERU 111
T. VALLEY 107
2 OT
T. Valley (14-7) 19 21 21 21 11 14 - 107
Peru (18-3) 21 26 20 15 11 18 - 111
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
Eaton (G) 9-20 12-17 3 3 7 32
Shepherd (G) 10-18 4-5 4 1 3 28
Cumberland (F) 4-4 6-6 1 1 11 14
Prater (F) 5-11 4-4 2 5 6 14
Kuhn (C) 3-6 3-3 0 3 3 9
Silveus 2-4 1-4 4 1 0 5
Snyder 2-3 1-2 0 1 2 5
New 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0
Weber 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Domenico 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 35-68 31-42 15 15 32 107
Peru FG FT A S R Pts.
Wiles (G) 8-14 2-2 1 3 6 20
Curtis (G) 4-7 9-14 3 2 5 18
Mellady (C) 8-10 2-6 1 3 4 18
Ulery (F) 6-17 2-3 4 4 4 17
Newhouse (F) 4-4 0-0 0 0 5 8
Jones 6-13 8-10 3 2 4 21
Touloukian 1-1 4-4 0 3 3 6
Appleton 1-2 0-0 3 0 1 3
Fuller 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Smiley 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 38-70 27-39 15 17 33 111
Three-point goals -ÊTippecanoe Valley 6-15 (Shepherd 4-9, Eaton 2-3, New 0-2, Prater 0-1), Peru 8-17 (Ulery 3-7, Wiles 2-5, Jones 1-3, Appleton 1-1, Curtis 1-1). Turnovers -ÊTippecanoe Valley 23, Peru 25. Fouled out -ÊCumberland, Eaton, Kuhn, Prater, Mellady, Newhouse. Total fouls - Tippecanoe Valley 28, Peru 30.
Officials -ÊLarry Jones (Logansport), John Pfeiffer (Fort Wayne). [[In-content Ad]]
SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊThe date was Dec. 15, 1998, and the boys basketball team had just lost 80-62, but the losing coach guaranteed his team could play with the winning team.
Peru had the 80, Tippecanoe Valley the 62, and the coach was Bill Patrick.
"Peru is a good basketball team, no question about it," he said that December night. "But I think we're every bit as good as they are, and I think we can play with them in the sectional."
Patrick was not lugging a crystal ball under his arm at the time, but he predicted the future 2-1/2 months in advance.
Tippecanoe Valley (14-6) drew No. 9 Peru (17-3) in Tuesday's first round of the Whitko 3A Sectional. The Vikings played with the Tigers, all right. They tied them 82-82 at regulation and 93-93 after one overtime before losing 111-107 in double overtime.
The two high school teams did in 40 minutes what NBA teams frequently now fail to do in 48: score 100 points. Up-tempo basketball has been Peru's calling card all year; the Vikings nearly beat them at their own game.
Three words were said by fans, coaches and players after this one: "Best game ever."
"I bet I've had 50 people tell me already it was the best game they have ever seen," Tippecanoe Valley assistant coach Chad Patrick, also the son of Bill Patrick, said. "That's the best basketball game from start to finish I've seen in my 27 years."
Coach Rob Irwin's Carroll team played Whitko in the second sectional game immediately following. No matter.
"I watched the whole thing," Irwin, a former Patrick assistant, said. "That was something, wasn't it?"
Said Valley senior point guard Jarvis Shepherd, who hit four three-pointers and scored 28, "You really couldn't ask for a better game, a sectional game, two overtimes. Unbelievable. We knew we could run with anybody.
"It was probably our best game of the year. We played our hearts out."
Along with their coach, the Valley fans must had a premonition, because at 5 p.m. -Êan hour before game time - much of Valley's seating block was full. They stood and roared from start to finish once the game started -Êand that's just the adults.
Who won depended on who touched the ball last.
Junior Brandon Eaton led all scorers with 32 as he and Shepherd, Valley's starting backcourt, combined for 60. Five Peru players scored between 17 and 21 points. Bench player Brandon Jones led with 21 and was followed by Brian Wiles with 20, Nathan Curtis with 18, Casey Mellady with 18 and Josh Ulery with 17.
Valley led 19-17 with 40 seconds left in the first quarter. The Vikings led one more time in regulation: 82-81 with 13.4 seconds left.
Eaton hit a jumper at the free-throw line on an assist from Noah Silveus to give Valley the 82-81 lead. The Vikings looked like they would sneak away with the win until a foul with 3.8 seconds left sent Curtis to the free-throw line.
Chad Patrick, who typically coaches the team as much as his dad, caved. He couldn't bear to watch, choosing to sit on the bench and cover his eyes with his hands. Curtis missed the first. He hit the second, and after Valley failed to score, the teams went into overtime tied 82-82.
They traded baskets throughout the first overtime. Eaton buried a three to put Valley ahead 85-82 with 3:17 left. No matter. Wiles hit a three-pointer 11 seconds later to tie it at 85-85.
On and on they went, the two teams trading punches, each unsuccessfully landing the knockout blow.
But Valley began fighting two battles instead of one. The first was against Peru, the second against attrition. The Vikings survived for a second overtime, but when the first overtime ended at 93-93, Eaton and starting center Josh Cumberland had fouled out.
Cumberland, who scored 14 on perfect shooting -Ê4 of 4 field goals and 6 of 6 free throws - fouled out nine seconds into the first overtime. He was the one player on the floor to finish with a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds.
Eaton fouled out with 53 seconds left in the overtime, and all he took with him were his 32 points, seven rebounds and handfuls of steals and assists.
Valley's scoring threats were down to Shepherd and Eric Prater in the final overtime. Prater, who scored 14 to go along with six rebounds and five steals, would join Cumberland and Eaton on the bench with his fifth foul.
And then there was one.
Only one Valley reserve - Silveus - saw much playing time off the bench through the first quarters. Now Valley had four bench players -Êanother starter, Craig Kuhn, fouled out in regulation - to go along with Shepherd.
Only one Peru scorer in double figures -ÊMellady - had fouled out. He finished with 18. But Peru still had Wiles, Curtis, Ulery and Jones.
"The end result was Peru was deeper and had more players to go to," Bill Patrick said. "Foul trouble hurt us."
And it was Jones who took over in the second overtime.
With Peru holding a 99-98 lead with 2:33 left, Jones scored six unanswered to make it 105-98 with 1:31. He capped his six-point outburst by grabbing a rebound, dribbling upcourt and scoring inside.
Valley got no closer than four the rest of the way.
Shepherd scored eight in the second overtime, but with 60 points on the bench in Cumberland, Eaton and Prater, the Vikings ran out of offensive firepower.
"If we would have had one of the four (starters who fouled out)," Chad Patrick moaned afterward. "That's all we needed. One of the four."
Said Shepherd: "People got into foul trouble, and that's what hurt us."
Peru advanced, thanks to 10 points from Jones and 10-of-10 free-throw shooting in the final overtime.
Every time Peru looked ready to put Valley away, the Vikings responded.
Peru ended the first half with an Ulery three-pointer in the final seconds to go up 47-40 - talk about taking momentum into the locker room, this was the Tigers' biggest lead of the first half - but Shepherd opened the second half with a three-pointer to cut the lead to 47-43.
Peru went up 58-46 with 5:04 left in the third. Back came Valley's offensive monster at the guard position. Eaton and Shepherd hit back-to-back three-pointers to trim the lead to 58-52 exactly one minute later.
The Tigers took a 73-61 lead with 6:14 in the fourth quarter, and onlookers said it was over, Valley was out of gas. The first time the two teams met, Valley trailed just 55-51 with seven minutes left, but Peru went on a 25-11 run to win by 18. Same thing was supposedly happening again.
"Even then," Bill Patrick said of the 12-point deficit, "I still believed we could win and we would win."
Peru, not Valley, faltered this time. The Tigers - a team with five senior starters -Êcommitted turnovers and missed free throws at key times.
Eaton, who scored 11 of his 32 in the fourth, was at it again, scoring five in a 7-0 run to bring Valley back to 73-68 with 5:14 left.
Then Peru melted, handing Valley the ball with unforced turnovers -Êtraveling, palming calls -Êat the 3:22, 2:35 and 2:13 marks. Peru led 79-73 at the time of the first turnover; at the time of the last turnover, the Tigers led 79-77.
A steal and layup by Ulery pushed Peru's lead to 81-77 with 1:33 left. Valley's Silveus, who scored four, scored two of them with 1:15 to go to make it 81-79.
Instead of turnovers, Peru missed free throws in the final minute. Ulery and Mellady each missed the front ends of one-and-ones in the final 1:01. Eaton hit 1 of 2 free throws to trim Peru's lead to 81-80, and neither team scored again until Eaton put Valley ahead 82-81 with 13.4 seconds left.
Peru, which hit 27 of 39 free throws (69 percent) for the game, hit only 5 of 11 (45 percent) in the fourth quarter.
"We had turnovers in critical situations," Peru coach Terry Heavilon said. "That's disappointing, because with a senior-laden team, that shouldn't happen. Had we made a couple of free throws in the fourth quarter, there wouldn't have been an overtime.
"It all goes back to the tournament being a whole different thing. There is an ungodly amount of pressure on these kids. It's different once you get in the tournament. I don't know what else you can say."
Eaton and Shepherd poured in points by the bucketful. The Vikings made 31 free throws to Peru's 27. The Vikings committed fewer turnovers, 23-25. Rebounding was a wash. When Peru made a run, Valley answered every time.
These were reasons why Bill and Chad Patrick could tell you with straight faces after the game while disappointed to see the season end, they left feeling more than good about the effort.
"You couldn't ask for anything more," Bill Patrick said. "Our players gave us everything they had. They left everything on the court. Sure, we could have played better defense, but I'm not gonna be critical when we play that hard.
"It had to be a great game for the fans. How could the fans ever ask for a better game?"
Said Chad Patrick: "Nothing else. There was nothing else we could have done."
No. 9 PERU 111
T. VALLEY 107
2 OT
T. Valley (14-7) 19 21 21 21 11 14 - 107
Peru (18-3) 21 26 20 15 11 18 - 111
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
Eaton (G) 9-20 12-17 3 3 7 32
Shepherd (G) 10-18 4-5 4 1 3 28
Cumberland (F) 4-4 6-6 1 1 11 14
Prater (F) 5-11 4-4 2 5 6 14
Kuhn (C) 3-6 3-3 0 3 3 9
Silveus 2-4 1-4 4 1 0 5
Snyder 2-3 1-2 0 1 2 5
New 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0
Weber 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Domenico 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 35-68 31-42 15 15 32 107
Peru FG FT A S R Pts.
Wiles (G) 8-14 2-2 1 3 6 20
Curtis (G) 4-7 9-14 3 2 5 18
Mellady (C) 8-10 2-6 1 3 4 18
Ulery (F) 6-17 2-3 4 4 4 17
Newhouse (F) 4-4 0-0 0 0 5 8
Jones 6-13 8-10 3 2 4 21
Touloukian 1-1 4-4 0 3 3 6
Appleton 1-2 0-0 3 0 1 3
Fuller 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Smiley 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 38-70 27-39 15 17 33 111
Three-point goals -ÊTippecanoe Valley 6-15 (Shepherd 4-9, Eaton 2-3, New 0-2, Prater 0-1), Peru 8-17 (Ulery 3-7, Wiles 2-5, Jones 1-3, Appleton 1-1, Curtis 1-1). Turnovers -ÊTippecanoe Valley 23, Peru 25. Fouled out -ÊCumberland, Eaton, Kuhn, Prater, Mellady, Newhouse. Total fouls - Tippecanoe Valley 28, Peru 30.
Officials -ÊLarry Jones (Logansport), John Pfeiffer (Fort Wayne). [[In-content Ad]]