Going for their second sectional championship in a row, the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team found itself in a tough position as the fourth quarter of IHSAA 3A Sectional 18’s championship game against Bremen. Trailing by 12 points, Valley was able to fight back to tie the game and force overtime. In the end, Bremen would make the final shot, ending the Lady Vikings’ season with a 55-53 win.
“I was proud of the way these girls played tonight, but at the end of the day they hit some tough shots,” Valley head coach Chris Kindig said. “We knew they had the chances to do that going in. I really feel for the seniors because they had such a great year.”
From the jump, the championship game felt nothing like the semifinal game that the Lady Vikings won the night before. The pace was fast, points were being put on the board at will and the lead was going back and forth on what seemed like every other possession. That’s not to say play was perfect though, and at times, it bordered on sloppy. Bodies were hitting the floor, players were fighting through a ton of contact with not many fouls being called and many, many turnovers were made.
Perhaps the reason play appeared so sloppy was that the Valley defense was doing a great job mucking things up. Locked in from the opening possession onward, the Lady Viking defense made it incredibly difficult for the Lady Lions to cross half court, let alone get a shot up. The game’s first timeout was called with a little over two minutes to go in the quarter, and Valley had already stolen the ball five times.
The Lady Vikings’ largest lead of the opening quarter would reach seven. It seemed as if Valley was beginning the process of taking the contest over, but Bremen’s two sharpshooters, Kila Foster and Mikayla Shively, had something to say about that. The pair would each hit a shot from distance in the final minutes to make it a two-point game heading into the second.

    Tippecanoe Valley senior Kelsey Cox jump passes the ball to a teammate during the first quarter of Saturday's sectional title game against Bremen. Photo by Gary Nieter

That second quarter would be an exciting one. The two teams stuck together the whole way, with each side sucking momentum away from the other with big shot after big shot. Foster continued to light up the scoreboard for the Lady Lions, while Ava Egolf remained Valley’s number one option.
Things got a little chippy at one point, with some shoves being thrown after a jump ball call. The intensity of a championship on the line was on full display. After trading the lead four different times in the quarter, the two teams settled on a 21-21 tie as they went into the locker room for halftime.
The second half began with fireworks, as the first three possessions resulted in three pointers, two for Bremen and one for Valley. The scoring didn’t stop there. Ava Smith, who didn’t score a point in the semifinal win over Rochester, was a reliable option in this one, serving alongside Egolf as the secondary scorer.
After playing suffocating defense for a half, the Lady Vikings opted to go with a zone to begin the third, and paid the price for it. Even after the initial surge, the deep ball continued to be a money maker for Bremen. It would open up the offense down low, leaving Valley defenseless on what turned into an onslaught.
“We got into some foul trouble in the first half, and we thought going into the zone could buy us some time,” Kindig explained. ‘Our 2-3 had worked pretty well for us this yeat but they came out and shot with confidence.”
The final three minutes of the third completely belonged to Bremen, with the Lady Lions outscoring Valley 12-0 the remainder of the way. The Lady Vikings were looking for anything to go their way, and eventually ended up putting up desperation threes.
Bremen now held a 12-point advantage with just eight minutes to play. Lucy Hayden got the team back on track with a midrange make to begin the fourth, Valley’s first made shot in over four minutes of play. It would only lead to another dry spell, as the team’s next points would come on an Egolf free throw with four and a half left to bring the lead down to nine.
With three minutes left, Foster hit her second three of the game to get it back up to 12 and erase five minutes of progress. Valley had one last push though, with Egolf and Gaby Gonzalez combining for five straight points to make it a seven-point game with two to play. After forcing a huge turnover, Smith nailed two from the charity stripe to make it five.
It looked as if Smith was going to go back to the line after another steal, but while one referee called a foul, the other called a jump ball. The latter call prevailed, and Valley was unable to make the shot on the following possession. But, on the following inbound, the Lady Vikings came away with another steal, leading to free throws for Hadley Wise. She’d split, making it a four-point game with a little over a minute left.
At this point, all of the momentum was on Valley’s side. The press they were putting on was working wonders. Bremen was making one pass at most before turning the ball over. After yet another steal and offensive rebound, Gonzalez converted on a layup attempt to get it down to two with 40 ticks left on the clock.
“It was all-out effort on our part. I don’t know if we would have been able to sustain that type of pace for four quarters,” Kindig said. “It was really fun to watch. We had all of the pressure on them.”

    Freshman Hadley Wise of Tippecanoe Valley came off the bench to hit a three-pointer in the closing minutes of the game. Photo by Gary Nieter

After finally breaking the press, Bremen would make a fatal mistake, dribbling too much and allowing Miller her seventh steal of the game. The possession that ensued ended in a jumper for Wise, who got the friendly roll to tie the game up.
The game would come down to the final possession: Valley ball with nine seconds left. The ball went to Egolf, who made a nice move to beat her initial defender, but she was called for a charge on the layup attempt. This would prove incredibly costly, as it was Valley’s leading scorer fifth foul, taking her out of the game for the overtime that was to come. Kindig thought the foul should have been called on the shot attempt.
Foster would get Bremen back on track to begin the extra period, making an and-one layup in the opening seconds to put the Lady Lions back on top. Valley would not score until two and a half minutes to go in OT, but did so in a big way, with Gonzalez and Hayden hitting back-to-back threes to put the Lady Vikings on top for the first time since the second quarter. It wouldn’t last long though, as Foster would hit a three immediately after to put Bremen in front once more.
With less than a minute to go, Smith would continue her big night with the biggest shot of the game: a three that put Valley up one with 18 seconds remaining.
As she had all night long, Foster continued to kill Valley. Scoring all but two points for Bremen since the fourth quarter began, the junior had her chance at the biggest shot of the game, and she hit it. The massive three pointer gave the Lady Lions a two-point edge with four ticks left, giving the Lady Vikings one final chance.
They would have two chances at it. The first would be a runner for Gonzalez on a nicely designed play. It would roll off the rim, but the rebound would go right to Hayden. She fought through the double team and was able to get the shot up, but it just barely grazed off of the rim as time expired, giving Bremen the sectional crown.
Egolf led the team with 15 points. Gonzalez scored 14 and added four steals. Smith added 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Hayden had five, while Miller finished with two points and the aforementioned seven steals. Kelsey Cox had a team-high nine rebounds.