Valley Vikings Advance
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
OSSIAN -ÊTippecanoe Valley took on the Fort Wayne Elmhurst Trojans in the Norwell Sectional semifinal Friday night. The game was a rematch of a game earlier in the year which the Trojans won 46-43.
Valley got sweet revenge by beating Elmhurst 56-51 to face Norwell in the sectional final tonight.
The final game will also be a game of potential revenge. The Norwell Knights beat the Vikings in the sectional final last year by one point.
Valley jumped off to an early 10-2 lead in the first quarter. The Vikings used a full-court press early to take the Trojans away from the game.
Elmhurst then finished the quarter strong. They outscored Valley 6-3 to cut the lead at the end of the quarter to three at 13-10.
"Early in the first quarter we did a great job of executing our game plan. You have to give Coach Mark Redding credit. He had his team ready to play. Once they got back into the game it just threw us of ours," said Valley head coach Gary Teel said.
With Valley up 15-13 with 5:11 in the second quarter, Teel called a timeout as Elmhurst was turning the momentum its way. Using a 5-2 run, the Trojans jumped out front at 19-17 with 2:29 left in the first half.
Valley began rushing shots and turning the ball over in the quarter. Elmhurst finished with a 5-0 run to take an eight-point lead into the locker room at 25-17.
"We had a heart-to-heart talk at half time. I told the girls that there are no eight point shots in basketball. We have to work a little bit at a time to get back in the game," said Teel.
To begin the third Valley appeared as though it was in a panic. The Vikings missed seven shots from the three-point line. As the quarter came to a close, the Vikings began the slow comeback.
With 4:10 left, Hannah Krueger hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to five at 32-27. The Trojan's Ebony Robinson responded with a three-point shot to run the score back to eight. Valley remained behind at the end of the third at 37-31.
"We were a little intimidated early in the game as the Trojans played tough physical basketball. I put in Whitney Sparkman to produce a strong force in the middle," said Teel.
Rachel Sitts left the game late in the third period as she limped to the bench.
"Rachel has a problem with shin splints and she could not get any height in her jumps. We had to put in Jennifer Hathaway as our inside player. She is only about 5-4 and she was playing against a player who was 5-11," Teel said.
Lela Rohrer led the fourth quarter charge for the Vikings. She scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the fourth. She went 3 of 3 from the field and 6 of 6 from the line in the final eight minutes.
Chelsy Rhoades sank a three-point shot from the top of the key to tie the game at 45-45. Rohrer then went to the charity stripe and sank both to give Valley the lead for good.
However it was not an easy task.
With 1:08 left in the game Valley had a five-point lead, 51-46. Raynesha Rogers of Elmhurst hit a three-point shot to cut the lead to 51-49. Rohrer then hit two more free throws to put Valley up by four.
Elmhurst cut the lead to 53-51 with 9.5 seconds left. Krueger was fouled and converted one of the two free throws to go up 54-51. Then with 7.2 seconds left Rohrer converted on two more from the stripe to finish out the scoring.
"Lela just carried this team on her back in the fourth quarter. She refused to lose and would do what it would take to win this ball game," Teel said.
Teel continued, "We will celebrate until tomorrow morning when we have our walk through. This is a great victory for us."
Along with the 17 points from Rohrer, Rhoades contributed 14. Hathaway scored nine and Krueger had eight. Krueger also had six steals and eight rebounds.
Valley will play the Knights of Norwell tonight at 7:30 p.m.
"They are a very good basketball team. They have some good players that can shoot threes and score from the inside," said Teel of tonight's opponent in Norwell. "Coach Eric Thorton has done a great job with his team."
Valley improved its record to 10-11 on the season with the win. Norwell is now at 11-11.
"You can't go by our records this year. We all have (Valley, Elmhurst and Norwell) losing records and have all played very tough schedules. This will be a good one. Remember that Norwell beat us by a point in last year's final," said Teel. [[In-content Ad]]
Latest News
E-Editions
OSSIAN -ÊTippecanoe Valley took on the Fort Wayne Elmhurst Trojans in the Norwell Sectional semifinal Friday night. The game was a rematch of a game earlier in the year which the Trojans won 46-43.
Valley got sweet revenge by beating Elmhurst 56-51 to face Norwell in the sectional final tonight.
The final game will also be a game of potential revenge. The Norwell Knights beat the Vikings in the sectional final last year by one point.
Valley jumped off to an early 10-2 lead in the first quarter. The Vikings used a full-court press early to take the Trojans away from the game.
Elmhurst then finished the quarter strong. They outscored Valley 6-3 to cut the lead at the end of the quarter to three at 13-10.
"Early in the first quarter we did a great job of executing our game plan. You have to give Coach Mark Redding credit. He had his team ready to play. Once they got back into the game it just threw us of ours," said Valley head coach Gary Teel said.
With Valley up 15-13 with 5:11 in the second quarter, Teel called a timeout as Elmhurst was turning the momentum its way. Using a 5-2 run, the Trojans jumped out front at 19-17 with 2:29 left in the first half.
Valley began rushing shots and turning the ball over in the quarter. Elmhurst finished with a 5-0 run to take an eight-point lead into the locker room at 25-17.
"We had a heart-to-heart talk at half time. I told the girls that there are no eight point shots in basketball. We have to work a little bit at a time to get back in the game," said Teel.
To begin the third Valley appeared as though it was in a panic. The Vikings missed seven shots from the three-point line. As the quarter came to a close, the Vikings began the slow comeback.
With 4:10 left, Hannah Krueger hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to five at 32-27. The Trojan's Ebony Robinson responded with a three-point shot to run the score back to eight. Valley remained behind at the end of the third at 37-31.
"We were a little intimidated early in the game as the Trojans played tough physical basketball. I put in Whitney Sparkman to produce a strong force in the middle," said Teel.
Rachel Sitts left the game late in the third period as she limped to the bench.
"Rachel has a problem with shin splints and she could not get any height in her jumps. We had to put in Jennifer Hathaway as our inside player. She is only about 5-4 and she was playing against a player who was 5-11," Teel said.
Lela Rohrer led the fourth quarter charge for the Vikings. She scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the fourth. She went 3 of 3 from the field and 6 of 6 from the line in the final eight minutes.
Chelsy Rhoades sank a three-point shot from the top of the key to tie the game at 45-45. Rohrer then went to the charity stripe and sank both to give Valley the lead for good.
However it was not an easy task.
With 1:08 left in the game Valley had a five-point lead, 51-46. Raynesha Rogers of Elmhurst hit a three-point shot to cut the lead to 51-49. Rohrer then hit two more free throws to put Valley up by four.
Elmhurst cut the lead to 53-51 with 9.5 seconds left. Krueger was fouled and converted one of the two free throws to go up 54-51. Then with 7.2 seconds left Rohrer converted on two more from the stripe to finish out the scoring.
"Lela just carried this team on her back in the fourth quarter. She refused to lose and would do what it would take to win this ball game," Teel said.
Teel continued, "We will celebrate until tomorrow morning when we have our walk through. This is a great victory for us."
Along with the 17 points from Rohrer, Rhoades contributed 14. Hathaway scored nine and Krueger had eight. Krueger also had six steals and eight rebounds.
Valley will play the Knights of Norwell tonight at 7:30 p.m.
"They are a very good basketball team. They have some good players that can shoot threes and score from the inside," said Teel of tonight's opponent in Norwell. "Coach Eric Thorton has done a great job with his team."
Valley improved its record to 10-11 on the season with the win. Norwell is now at 11-11.
"You can't go by our records this year. We all have (Valley, Elmhurst and Norwell) losing records and have all played very tough schedules. This will be a good one. Remember that Norwell beat us by a point in last year's final," said Teel. [[In-content Ad]]