Viking Boys Sluggish In First Win
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
AKRON - After Tuesday night's game against Wabash, Valley boys head basketball coach Bill Patrick said that his team had a tendency to play to the level of its competition. That may have been the case in the Vikings 65-53 season-opening win against the Apaches.
Valley jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes of the first quarter and seemed to coast from there, save an early second-quarter run.
Leading by a slim margin of 12-10 to start the second period, the Vikings showed a glimpse of intensity. Shane Denny's jump hook in the lane put Valley back in the lead 13-12 after Wabash's Matt Hicks nailed a three pointer to open up the period.
Valley's David Lash whipped the crowd into frenzy when he stole an Apache pass and drove the length of the court before throwing down a tomahawk slam with a Wabash defender in his hip pocket.
The dunk capped a 9-0 run that allowed the Vikings to return to autopilot.
The Vikings were led in scoring by Lash with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds, but Valley found offensive sparks from Denny, John Gibson and Shane Drudge.
Drudge came off the bench to chip in 11 points and five rebounds. Denny had 16 points that included four straight points in the third quarter to push the Vikings' lead to 39-36 with 3:45 left in the quarter.
Despite a 20-point loss to Manchester Saturday, Wabash wasn't about to let Valley run them out of the gym.
"They don't ever quit," said Patrick of Wabash. "They got beat by 20 points in their first two games. When they play, they play hard defense and they keep coming at you."
Lacking an inside game, the Apaches used the deft shooting touch of guards Ryan Dillon and Matt Hicks to keep Wabash in the game. Hicks led the Apaches in scoring with 17 points, while Dillon had 12.
Despite the efforts of Dillon and Hicks, the Apaches weren't able to close within one basket after trailing 39-36.
The Apaches made things interesting when Dillon hit a jumper in the lane to make the score 59-49 with 2:45 left in the game. Hicks followed with a jumper to make the score 59-51 with 1:13 to go in the fourth quarter.
Valley scored six straight points in the waning minutes to secure the win.
While its always good to open the season with a win, Patrick knows his team has to get past a tendency to coast at times.
"We've got a lot of room for improvement. We didn't play the way we wanted to play. We started the game off and played some good defense in the first four minutes and they didn't score, so I think our kids looked at the scoreboard and said, 'They haven't scored so we'll just let up on our defense' but we played well enough to win," said Patrick.
As a team, Valley shot well from the floor hitting, 22 of 42 attempts, good for 52 percent. While Wabash shot over 50 percent from the field on the night, Valley dominated the boards to keep the Apaches from any second-chance scoring tries.
The Vikings outrebounded the Apaches 27-17, with Denny and Drudge each grabbing five to go along with Lash's seven.
Valley rotated nine players against Wabash, which should provide some depth and give Patrick a chance to find who can chip in scoring wise outside the big four of Lash, Denny, Drudge and Gibson. Many of those looked to for contributions got their first taste of varsity action Tuesday.
"I thought overall those young kids were solid. We need those kids to chip in on offense. We don't need a lot of scoring, just enough to help out Lash, Denny, Drudge and Gibson," said Patrick.
The Vikings, 1-0 overall, host Knox Friday at 7:45 p.m.
VALLEY 65, WABASH 53
Wabash 10 16 12 15 - 53
Valley 12 25 14 14 - 65
Wabash FG FT R S Pts.
*Zimmerman 1-4 6-6 0 1 8
*Hambright 3-5 0-0 4 0 6
*Dillon 3-6 4-4 4 0 12
*Hicks 7-11 0-1 1 1 17
Smith 1-4 1-3 3 1 3
Houston 0-1 3-4 5 1 3
Hentgen 2-2 0-0 0 0 4
Totals 17-33 14-18 17 3 53
Valley FG FT R S Pts.
*Denny 7-15 2-4 5 3 16
*Gibson 3-4 5-6 4 3 11
*Domenico 1-2 0-0 0 1 3
*Lash 7-1310-12 7 1 24
*Reed 0-1 0-1 1 1 0
Drudge 4-7 2-2 5 0 11
Kindig 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Kelley 0-0 0-0 4 0 0
Totals 22-42 19-24 27 7 65
Three-point goals - Wabash 4-9 (Hicks 2-4, Dillon 2-3), Valley 2-5 (Domenico 1-2, Drudge 1-3) (Turnovers - Wabash 17, Valley 9. Fouls - Wabash 18, Valley 16 . Fouled out - Smith (Wabash)
JV - Valley 37, Wabash 28 [[In-content Ad]]
AKRON - After Tuesday night's game against Wabash, Valley boys head basketball coach Bill Patrick said that his team had a tendency to play to the level of its competition. That may have been the case in the Vikings 65-53 season-opening win against the Apaches.
Valley jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes of the first quarter and seemed to coast from there, save an early second-quarter run.
Leading by a slim margin of 12-10 to start the second period, the Vikings showed a glimpse of intensity. Shane Denny's jump hook in the lane put Valley back in the lead 13-12 after Wabash's Matt Hicks nailed a three pointer to open up the period.
Valley's David Lash whipped the crowd into frenzy when he stole an Apache pass and drove the length of the court before throwing down a tomahawk slam with a Wabash defender in his hip pocket.
The dunk capped a 9-0 run that allowed the Vikings to return to autopilot.
The Vikings were led in scoring by Lash with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds, but Valley found offensive sparks from Denny, John Gibson and Shane Drudge.
Drudge came off the bench to chip in 11 points and five rebounds. Denny had 16 points that included four straight points in the third quarter to push the Vikings' lead to 39-36 with 3:45 left in the quarter.
Despite a 20-point loss to Manchester Saturday, Wabash wasn't about to let Valley run them out of the gym.
"They don't ever quit," said Patrick of Wabash. "They got beat by 20 points in their first two games. When they play, they play hard defense and they keep coming at you."
Lacking an inside game, the Apaches used the deft shooting touch of guards Ryan Dillon and Matt Hicks to keep Wabash in the game. Hicks led the Apaches in scoring with 17 points, while Dillon had 12.
Despite the efforts of Dillon and Hicks, the Apaches weren't able to close within one basket after trailing 39-36.
The Apaches made things interesting when Dillon hit a jumper in the lane to make the score 59-49 with 2:45 left in the game. Hicks followed with a jumper to make the score 59-51 with 1:13 to go in the fourth quarter.
Valley scored six straight points in the waning minutes to secure the win.
While its always good to open the season with a win, Patrick knows his team has to get past a tendency to coast at times.
"We've got a lot of room for improvement. We didn't play the way we wanted to play. We started the game off and played some good defense in the first four minutes and they didn't score, so I think our kids looked at the scoreboard and said, 'They haven't scored so we'll just let up on our defense' but we played well enough to win," said Patrick.
As a team, Valley shot well from the floor hitting, 22 of 42 attempts, good for 52 percent. While Wabash shot over 50 percent from the field on the night, Valley dominated the boards to keep the Apaches from any second-chance scoring tries.
The Vikings outrebounded the Apaches 27-17, with Denny and Drudge each grabbing five to go along with Lash's seven.
Valley rotated nine players against Wabash, which should provide some depth and give Patrick a chance to find who can chip in scoring wise outside the big four of Lash, Denny, Drudge and Gibson. Many of those looked to for contributions got their first taste of varsity action Tuesday.
"I thought overall those young kids were solid. We need those kids to chip in on offense. We don't need a lot of scoring, just enough to help out Lash, Denny, Drudge and Gibson," said Patrick.
The Vikings, 1-0 overall, host Knox Friday at 7:45 p.m.
VALLEY 65, WABASH 53
Wabash 10 16 12 15 - 53
Valley 12 25 14 14 - 65
Wabash FG FT R S Pts.
*Zimmerman 1-4 6-6 0 1 8
*Hambright 3-5 0-0 4 0 6
*Dillon 3-6 4-4 4 0 12
*Hicks 7-11 0-1 1 1 17
Smith 1-4 1-3 3 1 3
Houston 0-1 3-4 5 1 3
Hentgen 2-2 0-0 0 0 4
Totals 17-33 14-18 17 3 53
Valley FG FT R S Pts.
*Denny 7-15 2-4 5 3 16
*Gibson 3-4 5-6 4 3 11
*Domenico 1-2 0-0 0 1 3
*Lash 7-1310-12 7 1 24
*Reed 0-1 0-1 1 1 0
Drudge 4-7 2-2 5 0 11
Kindig 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Kelley 0-0 0-0 4 0 0
Totals 22-42 19-24 27 7 65
Three-point goals - Wabash 4-9 (Hicks 2-4, Dillon 2-3), Valley 2-5 (Domenico 1-2, Drudge 1-3) (Turnovers - Wabash 17, Valley 9. Fouls - Wabash 18, Valley 16 . Fouled out - Smith (Wabash)
JV - Valley 37, Wabash 28 [[In-content Ad]]