Vikings Kick Game Away With Foul Shooting On Free Throws
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
AKRON -ÊSteve McClure emerged from the locker room, a can of Sprite in his right hand and a small brown bag of food in his left.
While Southwood's boys basketball coach brown-bagged it, his team delivered a blue-collar, lunch-pail, hard-hat effort in erasing a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in Saturday's game at Tippecanoe Valley.
His players got the game into overtime, and once they did, they stepped on Valley's throat, something the Vikings never did to Southwood in the fourth.
Southwood missed no shots and scored 20 points in the four-minute overtime to beat Valley 76-67 on Saturday.
The loss dealt Valley's hopes of winning the Three Rivers Conference title outright a serious blow. Valley entered 9-3 overall and at 3-0, the only team without a TRC loss. Now Valley falls into a four-way first-place tie with Southwood, Manchester and Oak Hill, each 3-1. Southwood moves to 8-2 overall.
Tippecanoe Valley coach Bill Patrick, in his third year with the school, called it the worst regular season loss since he's been with the Vikings.
They not only lost the game, they lost it by blowing a 49-39 lead on their home floor with less than six minutes left.
"This is one we should have won," he said. "We got the 10-point lead, and our players don't understand how to take care of the ball. These kids aren't sure what a good shot is.
"We're kind of struggling with the mental part of the game. We need more leadership. The way our schedule is the rest of the way, we may not win two more with this group."
Tippecanoe Valley's basketball court used to be a house of horrors for McClure.
No more.
McClure used to coach at Northfield, where he had several talented teams with players like the Chay brothers and the Ross brothers, whom former coach Digger Phelps brought to Notre Dame. No matter what, Valley always seemed to have Northfield's number.
Now McClure's at Southwood, now Valley has a legendary coach with 520 wins, and McClure can't lose at Valley. As they did this time, two years ago Valley folded late in a home loss to McClure's Southwood team.
Reminded of his Northfield days against Valley, McClure shook his head and shivered.
"It tells me God works in mysterious ways," he said.
How Southwood came back to beat Valley was anything but mysterious.
Valley turned the ball over, missed free throws and quit blocking out underneath in the second half. Led by 6-foot-4 Shawn Zellers, a 240-pound fullback for the football team nicknamed "The Beast," the Knights had their way around the basket against Valley in the last half.
If the Knights missed, no problem. They got the offensive rebound and went to work again. In the second half, Southwood grabbed 10 offensive rebounds, while Valley had 12 total rebounds.
Valley hit 5 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter and 2 of 4 in overtime; Southwood hit 7 of 8 in the fourth and 12 of 14 in overtime.
Valley had four turnovers in the fourth quarter; Southwood had four turnovers in the third and fourth quarters combined.
"Valley went zone to start the second half, and we got in a standing mode on offense," McClure said. "We encouraged the kids to be more aggressive on offense. Once we got the movement and got some dribble penetration to the basket, it opened the lanes for us to rebound."
"We weren't blocking out on several occasions," Patrick said.
The Knights won without starters 6-4 Brady Eltzroth (10.6 points per game) and Zellers (15.4 ppg) around in overtime. Zellers, who finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds (eight offensive), fouled out with 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Eltzroth, who had nine points and eight rebounds, fouled out with 4:23 left in the fourth.
Southwood led 31-29 at the half. Valley scored the first basket after halftime to tie the game. Southwood never led again and tied the game for the first time when senior guard Brandon Ehret hit a three-pointer to make it 56-56 with 12 seconds left.
Valley got one shot off, a baseline jumper that Cody New missed to send the game into overtime.
Once the Knights got the game into overtime, even without two of their best players, they went for the kill. They hit 3 of 3 field goals and 12 of 14 free throws.
"I would have said, 'How are we even going to get the game into overtime without them?'" McClure said of losing the two players. "But I tell the kids things don't always go the way they're drawn up."
Patrick had a different spin on Southwood losing the two players.
"Losing them makes it a totally different lineup than we practiced for all week," he said. "Now they were guard-oriented. Plus, we let down with their two big guys out."
Valley never led in overtime, and the last time the Vikings tied the game was at 58-58 with 3:19 left. The Knights may not have had Eltzroth and Zellers, but they still had Ehret.
Ehret, generously listed at 5-foot-9, hit two three-pointers and fueled a 14-2 run that put the Knights up 72-60 with 52 seconds left. He hit 6 of 12 three-pointers in the game and finished with 21 points, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Ehret, who averages 10.8 ppg, hit both overtime three-pointers as Valley defenders slipped and fell down, leaving him open.
"[Domenico] should have stayed on him and just tried to make him take bad shots," Patrick said. "You aren't going to take the ball away from him. We did a good job on him in the first half but not in the second half."
Ehret's first three-pointer started the 14-2 run and made it 61-58, and his second made it 65-60.
"We got down three with two minutes to go, and we quit," Patrick said. "We gave up."
Southwood scored 20 points in overtime after posting 10, 21, 6 and 16 points the previous four quarters.
Valley started falling apart with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter. Leading 49-39, Valley turned the ball over, and Ehret hit a three-pointer to slice the lead to 49-42.
New missed two free throws on Valley's next possession. Eltzroth hit his first free throw and missed the second, but Zellers gobbled up the offensive rebound and passed it back to Eltzroth, who scored. Southwood trailed 49-45.
On it went, Southwood scraping to survive and Valley handing it away. With 2:14 left, Zellers stole a pass out on the perimeter, dribbled down court and hit a jumpshot to cut the lead to 52-51. New tore through the paint for a layup to put Valley up 54-51, but Brian Bassett responded with two free throws - his first points of the game - to make it 54-53.
After a timeout, Valley's Trey Eaton received the inbounds pass and drew the fifth foul on Zellers. Eaton hit both free throws give Valley a 56-53 lead with 36 seconds left, setting up Ehret's heroic three-pointer to tie the game.
New led Valley with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but he needed 18 field goal attempts and 10 free throw attempts to score his 20. He finished 7 of 18 from the field, but worse yet, New, a 78 percent free throw shooter, hit just 4 of 10 free throws (0 of 3 in the fourth quarter).
Eaton added 19 points, but seven of those came in the first four minutes of the game. Valley, still seeking a third scoring threat outside of those two, received 11 from Andy Martin. Eaton and New made 15 field goals; the rest of Valley's players combined for eight.
"Trey, Anthony [Domenico] and Cody complained all night about being sick," Patrick said. "They were fine yesterday. I don't know if whether we were sick, tired, ran out of gas, I don't know."
McClure knows his team came up with an unlikely win on the road.
"I just get to keep my job another week," he joked.
SOUTHWOOD 76
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 67
OT
Southwood (8-2) 10 21 6 16 20 - 76
T. Valley (9-4) 11 18 14 13 11 - 67
Southwood FG FT A S R Pts.
Zellers (C) 9-20 4-4 2 1 11 22
Ehret (G) 7-16 1-2 2 3 3 21
Eltzroth (F) 4-11 1-2 0 2 8 9
Bassett (G) 0-3 8-8 6 1 2 8
Shaw (F) 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 0
Rogers 4-6 1-2 1 0 4 9
Holley 0-2 5-6 3 1 6 5
Kroft 0-0 2-2 0 0 2 2
Totals 24-60 22-26 14 9 37 76
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
New (F) 7-18 4-10 2 0 12 20
Eaton (C) 8-13 2-3 2 1 7 19
Martin (F) 1-5 9-10 2 3 4 11
Domenico (G) 3-8 0-0 3 1 1 7
Shafer (G) 1-4 0-0 2 0 6 2
Harmon 1-2 0-0 1 0 0 3
Hartzler 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 3
Stutzman 1-3 0-0 0 0 1 2
Wise 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 23-54 15-23 12 5 32 67
Three-point goals - Southwood 6-19 (Ehret 6-12, Bassett 0-3, Eltzroth 0-3, Rogers 0-1), Tippecanoe Valley 5-17 (New 2-8, Domenico 1-3, Eaton 1-2, Harmon 1-2, Shafer 0-1, Stutzman 0-1). Turnovers - Southwood 12, Tippecanoe Valley 16. Fouled out - Zellers, Eltzroth. Total fouls - Southwood 19, Tippecanoe Valley 19.
JV: TIPPECANOE VALLEY 51, SOUTHWOOD 50
Tippecanoe Valley (9-4) scoring - Blaine Hartzler 15, Andrew Kramer 11, Derek Sausaman 10, Chuck Sterk 6, David Beyers 5, Kyle Bruner 3, Kory Fields 1
Southwood (7-3) scoring - Trevor Loe 17, Troy Loe 8, Josh Schoeff 6, Robert Enyeart 6, Nick Ehret 5, Bryant Paul 4, Colby Halderman 2, Jarrod McKee 2 [[In-content Ad]]
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AKRON -ÊSteve McClure emerged from the locker room, a can of Sprite in his right hand and a small brown bag of food in his left.
While Southwood's boys basketball coach brown-bagged it, his team delivered a blue-collar, lunch-pail, hard-hat effort in erasing a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in Saturday's game at Tippecanoe Valley.
His players got the game into overtime, and once they did, they stepped on Valley's throat, something the Vikings never did to Southwood in the fourth.
Southwood missed no shots and scored 20 points in the four-minute overtime to beat Valley 76-67 on Saturday.
The loss dealt Valley's hopes of winning the Three Rivers Conference title outright a serious blow. Valley entered 9-3 overall and at 3-0, the only team without a TRC loss. Now Valley falls into a four-way first-place tie with Southwood, Manchester and Oak Hill, each 3-1. Southwood moves to 8-2 overall.
Tippecanoe Valley coach Bill Patrick, in his third year with the school, called it the worst regular season loss since he's been with the Vikings.
They not only lost the game, they lost it by blowing a 49-39 lead on their home floor with less than six minutes left.
"This is one we should have won," he said. "We got the 10-point lead, and our players don't understand how to take care of the ball. These kids aren't sure what a good shot is.
"We're kind of struggling with the mental part of the game. We need more leadership. The way our schedule is the rest of the way, we may not win two more with this group."
Tippecanoe Valley's basketball court used to be a house of horrors for McClure.
No more.
McClure used to coach at Northfield, where he had several talented teams with players like the Chay brothers and the Ross brothers, whom former coach Digger Phelps brought to Notre Dame. No matter what, Valley always seemed to have Northfield's number.
Now McClure's at Southwood, now Valley has a legendary coach with 520 wins, and McClure can't lose at Valley. As they did this time, two years ago Valley folded late in a home loss to McClure's Southwood team.
Reminded of his Northfield days against Valley, McClure shook his head and shivered.
"It tells me God works in mysterious ways," he said.
How Southwood came back to beat Valley was anything but mysterious.
Valley turned the ball over, missed free throws and quit blocking out underneath in the second half. Led by 6-foot-4 Shawn Zellers, a 240-pound fullback for the football team nicknamed "The Beast," the Knights had their way around the basket against Valley in the last half.
If the Knights missed, no problem. They got the offensive rebound and went to work again. In the second half, Southwood grabbed 10 offensive rebounds, while Valley had 12 total rebounds.
Valley hit 5 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter and 2 of 4 in overtime; Southwood hit 7 of 8 in the fourth and 12 of 14 in overtime.
Valley had four turnovers in the fourth quarter; Southwood had four turnovers in the third and fourth quarters combined.
"Valley went zone to start the second half, and we got in a standing mode on offense," McClure said. "We encouraged the kids to be more aggressive on offense. Once we got the movement and got some dribble penetration to the basket, it opened the lanes for us to rebound."
"We weren't blocking out on several occasions," Patrick said.
The Knights won without starters 6-4 Brady Eltzroth (10.6 points per game) and Zellers (15.4 ppg) around in overtime. Zellers, who finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds (eight offensive), fouled out with 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Eltzroth, who had nine points and eight rebounds, fouled out with 4:23 left in the fourth.
Southwood led 31-29 at the half. Valley scored the first basket after halftime to tie the game. Southwood never led again and tied the game for the first time when senior guard Brandon Ehret hit a three-pointer to make it 56-56 with 12 seconds left.
Valley got one shot off, a baseline jumper that Cody New missed to send the game into overtime.
Once the Knights got the game into overtime, even without two of their best players, they went for the kill. They hit 3 of 3 field goals and 12 of 14 free throws.
"I would have said, 'How are we even going to get the game into overtime without them?'" McClure said of losing the two players. "But I tell the kids things don't always go the way they're drawn up."
Patrick had a different spin on Southwood losing the two players.
"Losing them makes it a totally different lineup than we practiced for all week," he said. "Now they were guard-oriented. Plus, we let down with their two big guys out."
Valley never led in overtime, and the last time the Vikings tied the game was at 58-58 with 3:19 left. The Knights may not have had Eltzroth and Zellers, but they still had Ehret.
Ehret, generously listed at 5-foot-9, hit two three-pointers and fueled a 14-2 run that put the Knights up 72-60 with 52 seconds left. He hit 6 of 12 three-pointers in the game and finished with 21 points, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Ehret, who averages 10.8 ppg, hit both overtime three-pointers as Valley defenders slipped and fell down, leaving him open.
"[Domenico] should have stayed on him and just tried to make him take bad shots," Patrick said. "You aren't going to take the ball away from him. We did a good job on him in the first half but not in the second half."
Ehret's first three-pointer started the 14-2 run and made it 61-58, and his second made it 65-60.
"We got down three with two minutes to go, and we quit," Patrick said. "We gave up."
Southwood scored 20 points in overtime after posting 10, 21, 6 and 16 points the previous four quarters.
Valley started falling apart with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter. Leading 49-39, Valley turned the ball over, and Ehret hit a three-pointer to slice the lead to 49-42.
New missed two free throws on Valley's next possession. Eltzroth hit his first free throw and missed the second, but Zellers gobbled up the offensive rebound and passed it back to Eltzroth, who scored. Southwood trailed 49-45.
On it went, Southwood scraping to survive and Valley handing it away. With 2:14 left, Zellers stole a pass out on the perimeter, dribbled down court and hit a jumpshot to cut the lead to 52-51. New tore through the paint for a layup to put Valley up 54-51, but Brian Bassett responded with two free throws - his first points of the game - to make it 54-53.
After a timeout, Valley's Trey Eaton received the inbounds pass and drew the fifth foul on Zellers. Eaton hit both free throws give Valley a 56-53 lead with 36 seconds left, setting up Ehret's heroic three-pointer to tie the game.
New led Valley with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but he needed 18 field goal attempts and 10 free throw attempts to score his 20. He finished 7 of 18 from the field, but worse yet, New, a 78 percent free throw shooter, hit just 4 of 10 free throws (0 of 3 in the fourth quarter).
Eaton added 19 points, but seven of those came in the first four minutes of the game. Valley, still seeking a third scoring threat outside of those two, received 11 from Andy Martin. Eaton and New made 15 field goals; the rest of Valley's players combined for eight.
"Trey, Anthony [Domenico] and Cody complained all night about being sick," Patrick said. "They were fine yesterday. I don't know if whether we were sick, tired, ran out of gas, I don't know."
McClure knows his team came up with an unlikely win on the road.
"I just get to keep my job another week," he joked.
SOUTHWOOD 76
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 67
OT
Southwood (8-2) 10 21 6 16 20 - 76
T. Valley (9-4) 11 18 14 13 11 - 67
Southwood FG FT A S R Pts.
Zellers (C) 9-20 4-4 2 1 11 22
Ehret (G) 7-16 1-2 2 3 3 21
Eltzroth (F) 4-11 1-2 0 2 8 9
Bassett (G) 0-3 8-8 6 1 2 8
Shaw (F) 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 0
Rogers 4-6 1-2 1 0 4 9
Holley 0-2 5-6 3 1 6 5
Kroft 0-0 2-2 0 0 2 2
Totals 24-60 22-26 14 9 37 76
T. Valley FG FT A S R Pts.
New (F) 7-18 4-10 2 0 12 20
Eaton (C) 8-13 2-3 2 1 7 19
Martin (F) 1-5 9-10 2 3 4 11
Domenico (G) 3-8 0-0 3 1 1 7
Shafer (G) 1-4 0-0 2 0 6 2
Harmon 1-2 0-0 1 0 0 3
Hartzler 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 3
Stutzman 1-3 0-0 0 0 1 2
Wise 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 23-54 15-23 12 5 32 67
Three-point goals - Southwood 6-19 (Ehret 6-12, Bassett 0-3, Eltzroth 0-3, Rogers 0-1), Tippecanoe Valley 5-17 (New 2-8, Domenico 1-3, Eaton 1-2, Harmon 1-2, Shafer 0-1, Stutzman 0-1). Turnovers - Southwood 12, Tippecanoe Valley 16. Fouled out - Zellers, Eltzroth. Total fouls - Southwood 19, Tippecanoe Valley 19.
JV: TIPPECANOE VALLEY 51, SOUTHWOOD 50
Tippecanoe Valley (9-4) scoring - Blaine Hartzler 15, Andrew Kramer 11, Derek Sausaman 10, Chuck Sterk 6, David Beyers 5, Kyle Bruner 3, Kory Fields 1
Southwood (7-3) scoring - Trevor Loe 17, Troy Loe 8, Josh Schoeff 6, Robert Enyeart 6, Nick Ehret 5, Bryant Paul 4, Colby Halderman 2, Jarrod McKee 2 [[In-content Ad]]