COLUMBIA CITY - When Columbia City's basketball players went on summer vacation, they took with them memories of a sectional loss.

Their season ended when they walked off the court with a 33-32 loss to Tippecanoe Valley in the sectional championship game, on their home floor no less.

The Eagles remembered how that felt. Friday night, it was payback time. Again they hosted Tippecanoe Valley. This time they won 64-40.

"I think (the sectional loss) was our driving force this summer," Columbia City coach Chris Benedict said. "We had some disheartened kids when Valley took one from us. We had five kids who played 30-some minutes a game last year returning. I'm sure it was in the back of their minds. It was in the back of my mind a little bit."

Gabe Argerbright, Matt Moore, Chad Graves, Dave Richmond and Jason Elkins were the five players Benedict referred to. They sensed the kill early, as they knew they were facing a Valley team that lost key starters in Darren Parker, Jeff Brown and Nick Stutzman.

Richmond - the Columbia City player opposing coaches rave about - didn't need his A-1 game. He didn't need his B game, for that matter. This game plan was simple. When the Eagles wanted to get the ball inside against Valley, they got it inside. Who shot it didn't matter.

They made 25 field goals. Of the 25, 21 came in the paint. They made 11 field goals the second half. All 11 came in the paint.

The Eagles ran a four-quarter layup clinic against the Vikings.

Columbia City delivered the knockout punch in the first quarter. The Eagles closed the quarter with three layups - two by guard Matt Moore, one by guard Mike Schumaker - to take a 15-3 lead as the second quarter started.

The defining moment of the game may have taken place with 1:47 left in the first half. Columbia City's Justin Waterson, 5-foot-9 backup guard, dribbled from the free throw lane to the basket for a layup. This wasn't a transition basket. The Eagles were in their half-court offense. He went untouched. His basket put the Eagles up 31- 11.

Plays like that were the rule - not the exception - against Valley.

Moore led Columbia City with 13 points. Elkins and Continued from Page 1B

Justin Waterson added 10, and Richmond tallied nine.

"We bounced back (from a loss to Warsaw) and took care of business against a Tippecanoe Valley team the way we needed to take care of business," Benedict said. "We always stress the team that gets the ball in the paint the most is the team that will win."

Valley's interior defense left head coach Gregg Sciarra nearly speechless. After a few minutes of silence, he finally offered a few thoughts.

"I thought we were outmanned," he said. "They were very quick. They're just a real solid team, one of the better teams we will face. We knew that going in. They were so good, some of their big guns didn't have so many of the points. They had balanced scoring. They play so well together."

Six-foot-nine foreign exchange student Maurice Looman led Valley with 10 points and six rebounds.

Columbia City improved to 2-1.

Tippecanoe Valley, 0-2, hosts North Miami at 6:30 this evening. [[In-content Ad]]