Warsaw Wears Valley Down
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
MENTONE - Warsaw's physical nature finally took its toll on Tippecanoe Valley Wednesday.
After standing toe-to-toe with the Tigers for three quarters, foul trouble handicapped the Vikings as Warsaw was able to hammer away at the inside of the Valley defense for a critical fourth-quarter run in the Tigers' 62-51 win in the season opener for both teams.
After watching a double-digit lead disappear in the third quarter, the Tigers held a fragile 45-40 lead entering the fourth quarter. That is when the Tigers turned to two of their big guys to give them a jump start. Luke Reed and Chris Hill scored six points each as Warsaw opened up a 57-46 lead and never looked back.
"I do believe our team depth won the game," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "It hurt us at times as we used different combinations, and Valley made some good runs. But overall, they had foul trouble, and that made them play softer in the post in the fourth quarter, and we got a lot of good opportunities for Luke Reed and Chris Hill. We were trying to go to them."
Up until that point, the Vikings had done a credible job on the Tigers' physical, aggressive defense. But already with a small, inexperienced lineup, the Vikings were put in a worse position with foul trouble on post players Scott Cooksey, JayDee Parker and Maurice Looman.
"For most of the game, we did a good job of keeping them out of the paint based on the physical nature of some of their kids," Sciarra said of the Warsaw attack. "They are aggressive, and they do a nice job."
Reed added four boards as Warsaw beat Valley on the backboards 9-4 in the period.
"The nature of our kids, we are not aggressive," Sciarra said. "And tonight we were aggressive and did well underneath. They did take it to us in the fourth, but our rotation of seven people hurt us. We were dragging, we had a lot of guys in foul trouble, so we had people in situations where they had not been before."
Warsaw seems to have a unique lineup this year in that it has a lot of experience with some players and almost none with others. In the fourth, Rhodes went to what could get him the win and had four seniors on the court almost the whole time.
"In the fourth quarter, we went with our more experienced players," Rhodes said. "We felt that they did a good job of closing out the game."
After trailing 9-3 in the opening quarter, the Vikings went on a quick 8-0 run to garner an 11-9 lead after the first stanza.
Valley held a 17-13 advantage early in the second when the Tigers started exploiting the Vikings' foul trouble and a 2-3 zone that left the inside open for back-door opportunities.
The result was a 15-0 run for Warsaw and a 28-17 halftime lead.
"We were in foul trouble in the second quarter, and we went to a zone," Sciarra said. "We had some miscues on our wing defense that burned us twice. Our goal was to survive without getting any more fouls on us. The worst thing happened to us, and we didn't cover out of our zone like we are supposed to."
In the third, Valley started to come back behind the three-point marksmanship of senior Eric Love. His fourth trey of the period cut the Warsaw lead to 39-35 with just over 1:30 left in the quarter and capped off a 9-0 run.
The Tigers' lead was just three, 43-40, with five seconds left in the third when Valley got a taste of things to come in the following quarter. With almost no time to set up a play, Warsaw's Jason Barrett found Chris Hill under the basket on an out-of-bounds play.
Hill's layup gave Warsaw a 45-40 lead heading into the fourth.
Love had zero points in the fourth on 0 of 2 shooting. He ended the game with a game-high 15 points, including the 12 in the third.
"He had several spells where he really hurt us," Rhodes said. "He is an excellent shooter. Fortunately in the fourth quarter, we switched out to him a whole lot better and kept track of him. He didn't have a real good look the last four minutes of the game." With the improved defense, the Tigers also converted better at the charity stripe in the fourth, including 4 of 4 from Jason Alspaugh that helped seal the deal. Warsaw made only 14 of 22 from the free throw line, including 6 of 12 in the first half.
"I thought we were very much in a rush mode in the first half," Rhodes said. "We showed it at the free throw line. Every player up there shot it quick, it was nerves."
In this game, both teams were looking for two things - positives and experience. Despite the loss, Valley too found both of those ingredients.
"They have made strides in the small amount of time we have had together," Sciarra said. "We were very excited because we have been missing that ingredient in physical, hard-nosed type attitude, and we had it tonight."
Reed led Warsaw with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Hill and Chris Wiggins both added 10.
Warsaw won the junior varsity game 39-26.
Warsaw (1-0) is at Columbia City Saturday, while Valley (0-1) is at the same Columbia City team Dec. 5. [[In-content Ad]]
MENTONE - Warsaw's physical nature finally took its toll on Tippecanoe Valley Wednesday.
After standing toe-to-toe with the Tigers for three quarters, foul trouble handicapped the Vikings as Warsaw was able to hammer away at the inside of the Valley defense for a critical fourth-quarter run in the Tigers' 62-51 win in the season opener for both teams.
After watching a double-digit lead disappear in the third quarter, the Tigers held a fragile 45-40 lead entering the fourth quarter. That is when the Tigers turned to two of their big guys to give them a jump start. Luke Reed and Chris Hill scored six points each as Warsaw opened up a 57-46 lead and never looked back.
"I do believe our team depth won the game," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said. "It hurt us at times as we used different combinations, and Valley made some good runs. But overall, they had foul trouble, and that made them play softer in the post in the fourth quarter, and we got a lot of good opportunities for Luke Reed and Chris Hill. We were trying to go to them."
Up until that point, the Vikings had done a credible job on the Tigers' physical, aggressive defense. But already with a small, inexperienced lineup, the Vikings were put in a worse position with foul trouble on post players Scott Cooksey, JayDee Parker and Maurice Looman.
"For most of the game, we did a good job of keeping them out of the paint based on the physical nature of some of their kids," Sciarra said of the Warsaw attack. "They are aggressive, and they do a nice job."
Reed added four boards as Warsaw beat Valley on the backboards 9-4 in the period.
"The nature of our kids, we are not aggressive," Sciarra said. "And tonight we were aggressive and did well underneath. They did take it to us in the fourth, but our rotation of seven people hurt us. We were dragging, we had a lot of guys in foul trouble, so we had people in situations where they had not been before."
Warsaw seems to have a unique lineup this year in that it has a lot of experience with some players and almost none with others. In the fourth, Rhodes went to what could get him the win and had four seniors on the court almost the whole time.
"In the fourth quarter, we went with our more experienced players," Rhodes said. "We felt that they did a good job of closing out the game."
After trailing 9-3 in the opening quarter, the Vikings went on a quick 8-0 run to garner an 11-9 lead after the first stanza.
Valley held a 17-13 advantage early in the second when the Tigers started exploiting the Vikings' foul trouble and a 2-3 zone that left the inside open for back-door opportunities.
The result was a 15-0 run for Warsaw and a 28-17 halftime lead.
"We were in foul trouble in the second quarter, and we went to a zone," Sciarra said. "We had some miscues on our wing defense that burned us twice. Our goal was to survive without getting any more fouls on us. The worst thing happened to us, and we didn't cover out of our zone like we are supposed to."
In the third, Valley started to come back behind the three-point marksmanship of senior Eric Love. His fourth trey of the period cut the Warsaw lead to 39-35 with just over 1:30 left in the quarter and capped off a 9-0 run.
The Tigers' lead was just three, 43-40, with five seconds left in the third when Valley got a taste of things to come in the following quarter. With almost no time to set up a play, Warsaw's Jason Barrett found Chris Hill under the basket on an out-of-bounds play.
Hill's layup gave Warsaw a 45-40 lead heading into the fourth.
Love had zero points in the fourth on 0 of 2 shooting. He ended the game with a game-high 15 points, including the 12 in the third.
"He had several spells where he really hurt us," Rhodes said. "He is an excellent shooter. Fortunately in the fourth quarter, we switched out to him a whole lot better and kept track of him. He didn't have a real good look the last four minutes of the game." With the improved defense, the Tigers also converted better at the charity stripe in the fourth, including 4 of 4 from Jason Alspaugh that helped seal the deal. Warsaw made only 14 of 22 from the free throw line, including 6 of 12 in the first half.
"I thought we were very much in a rush mode in the first half," Rhodes said. "We showed it at the free throw line. Every player up there shot it quick, it was nerves."
In this game, both teams were looking for two things - positives and experience. Despite the loss, Valley too found both of those ingredients.
"They have made strides in the small amount of time we have had together," Sciarra said. "We were very excited because we have been missing that ingredient in physical, hard-nosed type attitude, and we had it tonight."
Reed led Warsaw with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Hill and Chris Wiggins both added 10.
Warsaw won the junior varsity game 39-26.
Warsaw (1-0) is at Columbia City Saturday, while Valley (0-1) is at the same Columbia City team Dec. 5. [[In-content Ad]]