MENTONE - Sometimes the best timeout a coach has is the halftime period.

Tippecanoe Valley coach Gregg Sciarra was definitely happy about the time between the two halves as the Vikings were able to adjust against an upstart Argos squad Saturday.

After trailing 33-27 at the break, the Vikes outscored the Dragons 51-32 in the second half to run away to a 78-65 win on a cold and blustery night.

Not only were the Vikings shooting bad at halftime (7 of 26, 27 percent), they were also getting burned on defense for easy layups as the Dragons got their offense going on two plays. One was a high post game that saw Argos players get easy uncontested layups and the other was the release of a player on the fastbreak also for easy layup opportunities.

"I thought we worked our tails off in the first half, and we didn't have anything to show for it because of the intellectual part of the game," Sciarra said. "Some adjustments were made, and it did help out that halftime finally came. I give Coach (Mike) Miller and Coach (Chris) Kindig credit, they chimed in and did a good job of making the adjustments. It was good the kids reacted and did what was supposed to happen."

"I was disappointed in our intellectual play," he said. "We got beat two or three times on the same thing. If they went up to midpost or soforth, we would be up high on them and we wanted them to be low, they would pin us and throw it over the top. We talked about it, and it kept happening. Those little mistakes shouldn't be happening for us now."

In the second half, the easy opportunities for the Dragons ceased, and the Vikings began to make their shots. Valley got its offense on track with the help of some cutting and passing that overall produced 28 field goals in the game and 20 assists. Valley also shot 21 of 30 from the field in the second half.

"We saw the back cuts at times," Sciarra said. "We had good cuts and good passes. It will take that for us to beat good teams."

Valley looked to be in total control of the game when it opened up the fourth with a 57-51 lead on the strength of a jumper by Nick Stutzman and a three-pointer from Eric Love.

But just as the first three quarters had been played very smooth by both teams, the play became very ragged and rough in the fourth and the officials seemed to let it happen. That play caused the Vikings to lose leading scorer Jeff Brown (22 points, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals), for about the fourth quarter with four fouls. Valley led 64-48 when Brown returned with about four minutes left to go in the game and helped the Vikings close things out with a 14-7 run to end the game.

"It was a very physical game," Sciarra said. "Sometimes, you question what was going on out there on some things. That causes ragged play at times. We had some kids get into foul trouble because of some of that."

Valley put four players in double figures, led by Brown's 22. Darren Parker added 15 (13 in the second half), Love 14 (all in the second half) and Stutzman 10 (eight in the second half).

The Vikings' defense also held Argos' big gun, Eric Stults, in check. The Dragon junior got only 16 points.

"Argos has some real good players," Sciarra said. "That is not the usual Stults kid that I usually see. He usually has a better game. He is a solid player. They have some people who can play the game. When the class basketball comes around next year, they are really going to enjoy that part of the season."

Valley (6-3) hosts Southwood Tuesday in a game rescheduled from last Friday. [[In-content Ad]]