ROCHESTER - Those games against arch rivals are the scariest ones. You can throw out the records and start from scratch. There is always more on the line than just a simple basketball game. It's about pride.

So when Tippecanoe Valley headed to winless Rochester, there were no thoughts of an easy victory despite the fact that the Vikings were the heavy favorite.

Then again, sometimes even big rivalries are not all that they are cracked up to be. Such was the case Friday night as Valley destroyed the Rochester Zebras 79-44 to move over .500 in the Three Rivers Conference.

"We were real concerned about them being a conference rival and having not won a game yet," said Valley head coach Gregg Sciarra.

The Vikings jumped on Rochester early, getting out to an 8-2 lead after an Eric Love layup capped a small run of six consecutive points.

After Nick Stutzman knocked down a three-pointer to give Valley a 15-6 lead, the two teams went cold offensively. Over the final four minutes of the opening quarter, each team got just one field goal. Valley led 17-8 after eight minutes.

Neither team shot well in the first quarter, as Valley shot 31 percent and Rochester shot a dismal 23 percent.

In the second quarter, the Vikings extended the lead to double digits when JayDee Parker scored two of his nine points to make the score 25-14.

Leading 25-15 with three minutes to play, Valley closed out the first half with a 10-2 run to go into the half with a comfortable lead.

The only negative for the Vikings in the first half came with 1:27 to play in the second period when Jeff Brown took a charge. He went hard to the floor and came up holding the back of his head. Brown went to the locker room, but did return in the second half.

Valley turned around its shooting in the second quarter by hitting 64 percent from the floor. Rochester was really no better in the second quarter than it was in the first, shooting 33 percent.

The big factor, however, may have been turnovers. Valley forced Rochester into 14 of them in the first 16 minutes, while the Vikings had only three.

But with a big rival, strange things can happen.

"We had an 18-point lead," said Sciarra. "We had been there before, and we didn't get the job done. That was our halftime."

In the third quarter, Brown returned to the game for Valley with a large bandage around his head and renewed energy. Rochester continued to try to claw back into the game, but Brown scored seven in the quarter and the lead was 23 after three, 55-32.

Rochester was forced to push the ball in the final quarter, something the Zebras do not do often. Playing into the Vikings style, Rochester could only score 12 points in the final period and Valley went on to win by the final of 79-44.

"You would think you would be ready to play for your biggest rival," said Rochester coach Scott Newcomb. "We just weren't. I don't know what the reason is. The kids ought to show up ready to play and enthused about playing. We had a good crowd; it's too bad that we couldn't give them a good show."

Brown led all scorers with 23 points and he added five rebounds. Darren Parker played a solid all-around game with nine points, six assists, four steals and three rebounds.

Rochester was led in scoring by senior center, T.J. Dubois, who scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Turnovers were the key to the game according to Newcomb. "You can't win ball games turning the ball over like that. There's just no way possible. We were pushing the ball up and making stupid decisions. We weren't even doing things we had ever practiced before."

Valley ended up forcing 22 Zebra turnovers while only committing eight turnovers.

"We made an honest effort to pick up our man-to-man pressure," said Sciarra. "We needed a win like this. We're starting to do some little things that we need to do to be a real good team."

Valley (8-5,3-2) is at South Bend Washington today. [[In-content Ad]]