AKRON - Tippecanoe Valley coach Bill Patrick picked up his 500th career win Friday with a win over Northfield. The win brought a lot of pressure to his team as well as a lot of hoopla.

Knowing Patrick needed only one win, his basketball team put a lot of pressure on themselves to win Friday night's game. With that pressure, the Vikings also use a lot of energy Friday.

Heading into Saturday night's matchup against non-conference foe Caston, you could almost sense that the Vikings would be a little tired and slugginsh. Sluggish they were to open this game.

"Last night there was a lot of pressure on our kids to win," said Patrick, referring to his 500th win. "It is really hard to handle for 16-17-year-old kids, it took a lot out of them."

Even with the sluggish start, the Vikings still found a way to win, as good teams usually do. The Vikings edged the Comets (5-5) 53-44 to raise their record to 9-3.

"We started out sluggish," siad Patrick. "Caston did a nice job of slowing the pace down and we were in too big of a urry at the start."

Caston, which was coming off a triple-overtime loss to Argos on Friday night, knew that the only to way to stay close to the Vikings was by slowing the game down and taking care of the basketball. In the first quarter, the Comets played their type of game.

Caston scored the first points of the game on a Tim Browyer layup. The first points of the game didn't come until the 5:45 mark. After missing their opening shot, the Vikings tied the score at two on a Craig Kuhn layup with 4:10 left. After several missed opportunities on both sides, the Comets took a four-point lead at 8-4 on two more easy baskets. Valley's Dax Snyder ended the quarter hitting a jump shot at the buzzer to cut the Comet lead to 8-6.

"We didn't do the little things well tonight," said Patrick. "We didn't block out very well and we let them get a lot of good looks."

After a low-scoring first quarter, the Vikings picked up their defensive pressure, thus leading to some easy buckets and quick scores.

The Vikings started the quarter on a 6-0 run to erase Caston's brief two-point lead, to make it 12-8 Vikings. Drew Shafer's steal was the spark the Vikings needed.

"Drew played a great second quarter," Patrick said. "He came in and scored some points for us when we were struggling."

Shafer scored all 10 of his points in the quarter.

The Vikings kept a 5-6-point lead most of the quarter, also thanks to six points from Trey Eaton. Brandon Eaton's three-pointer with :46 left in the quarter gave the host team a 27-21 lead at the break.

"In the first half, we really let them dictate the game," said Patrick. "We had some key turnovers that also hurt us."

The third quarter started off like the first, slow and not a lot of offense. Caston again was patient in looking to score. Kuhn gave the Vikings their biggest lead of the game at 29-21 on a layup with 6:15 to play. Anthony Domenico would then up the lead to 10 at 34-24 with a nice jumper.

"I think our pressure started to get to them a little," said Patrick. "We were really struggling on the defensive end."

The Vikings continued to lead by 10 at 41-31 until Caston's Josh Craig hit a wide open three-pointer to end the third quarter and cut the Valley lead to 41-34.

"They really had a lot of open looks from the outside," Patrick said. "Again, we were just a step too slow."

All Caston wanted all night was for a chance to win at the end, and they proved that all the way down to the final buzzer. There was no giving up on the part of the Comets.

Trey Eaton scored the first points of the fourth quarter, two free throws to give the Vikings a 43-43 lead. After a Comet score, the Vikings scored the next four points on layups by Trey Eaton and Snyder to up the lead to 47-36.

Again looking like the Vikings were about to bury the Comets, Caston started burying three-pointers. Back-to-back three's by Bo Hines and Craig cut the lead to 47-42 with 1:19 left.

The Vikings would finally put this game away at the free throw line. It was Brandon Eaton who did the damage, hitting six straight to close the game and give Patrick his 501st victory.

"You know, we didn't play well tonight, but we still found a way to win," said Patrick. "I am still really happy with where we're at right now. We have had a lot of guys step up when we had injuries and things."

Brandon Eaton led the Vikings with 15 points which included 3 of 3 from long range and 6 of 6 at the stripe. Trey Eaton, Brandon's brother, also chipped in 12 points and five rebounds. Drew Shafer was also in double figures with 10. Viking point guard Noah Silveus had a solid floor game, collecting six steals and dishing out four assists.

Tim Bowyer led the Comets with 13 while Eric Walsh, Hines and Craig each had 10.

With the win, the Vikings improve to 9-3 and face a tough conference game at home Friday against Rochester.

"Rochester is a very talented ball club," said Patrick. "They have three kids that can shoot the ball well. We really need to focus on blocking out and taking care of the basketball next week."

TIPPECANOE VALLEY 53, CASTON 44

Caston 8 13 13 10 - 44

Valley 6 21 14 12 - 53

Caston FG FT R A S Pts.

Bowyer 6-11 0-0 5 2 2 13

Walsh 3-8 4-4 3 0 2 10

Boldry 0-2 0-0 1 1 0 0

Hines 4-10 0-0 0 1 0 10

Kistler 0-2 1-2 2 0 0 1

Craig 4-9 0-0 7 2 0 10

Bell 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Wilson 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0

Totals 17-42 5-6 18 7 4 44

Valley FG FT R A S Pts.

Silveus 3-9 0-0 5 4 6 6

Shafer 4-5 0-0 1 1 1 10

Snyder 2-4 0-0 1 1 0 4

B. Eaton 3-8 6-6 7 4 0 15

Domenico 1-1 0-0 0 1 2 2

Ross 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 0

Kuhn 2-4 0-0 1 0 0 4

T. Eaton 4-7 4-5 5 1 0 12

Totals 19-41 10-11 20 12 9 53

Three-point goals -ÊValley 5-14 (Silveus 0-4, Shafer 2-3, B. Eaton 3-7), Caston 5-21 (Bowyer 1-3, Walsh 0-1, Boldry 0-2, Hines 2-8, Kistler 0-1, Craig 2-6). Total fouls -ÊValley 13, Caston 14. Fouled out - Bowyer, Walsh. Turnovers -ÊValleey 10, Caston 16.

JV -ÊVALLEY 47, CASTON 22 [[In-content Ad]]