No matter the size of the school, no matter where it’s located, senior athletes will be honored in their final home game of the season. For the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team, that day was Tuesday, as the five Lady Viking seniors were honored before taking Rita Price-Simpson court for the final time in their careers against Wawasee. It was a final night to remember, as the Valley blitzed the Lady Warriors in the opening minutes and never looked back, honoring their 12th graders with a 52-31 win.
“You’re always a little concerned about Senior Night, you wonder what kind of intensity you’re going to get but tonight that wasn’t an issue. This was one of our best games of the year,” Valley head coach Chris Kindig said after the game. “You want to send these girls out with one last happy memory and we did that here tonight.”
Perhaps feeling energized by the festivities that took place just moments prior, the Lady Vikings began the game as if they were shot out of a cannon. Valley was able to score the first eight points of the game in just under a minute and fifteen seconds, with senior Chesnee Miller doing a brunt of the work with a pair of and-one layups. The defense of the Lady Vikings was fierce, forcing the Lady Warriors to turn the ball over on each of their first three possessions.
“We got it going early. We controlled it on both ends throughout and that starts with our defense,” Kindig said. “We were making them force things, putting them into pressure-filled situations, that’s exactly what we needed to do.
After another basket made it 11-0 in the blink of an eye, Wawasee licked its wounds and got right back up. A pair of free throws by Olivia Horn would put her team on the scoreboard about three and a half minutes in, which was all the Lady Warriors needed to kickstart a run. Not long afterwards, Brooklynn Gibson drained a three for the team’s first field goal, and before too long, Wawasee was on a 7-0 tun of its own.
The Lady Vikings would create a bit of separation for themselves in the final minutes of the first, taking a seven-point lead into the second quarter. A burst at the beginning of that period would see Valley extend their lead to double digits once more. As crucial as Miller was to Valley’s success a quarter prior, fellow senior Ava Egolf was just as important here. The Lady Vikings’ leading scorer would put on a show in the opening minutes, hitting shots from all over the court to become the first player to reach double figures scoring.
On her tail was Wawasee’s do-it-all player Mackenzie Hackleman, who was a formidable leader of a Wawasee side trying to claw its way back. Whether it was on the offensive or defensive end of the court, Hackleman was making plays left and right as the Lady Warriors got it back down to seven points once more.
But before halftime, that was as far as the visitors would get. The turnover issue that arose in the game’s opening seconds had not gone away, and it seemed as if each time Wawasee was able to get something going and string a run together, a flurry of turnovers would occur and stop all momentum in its tracks. Valley didn’t seem to mind the matter as much, oftentimes turning the miscues into easy buckets. The end result was the home side holding an eleven point lead at the half.

    Junior Ava Coutrure of Wawasee scoops the ball to the basket during the second quarter. Photo by Gary Nieter

The lead continued to grow as the third quarter rolled along, with Egolf continuing her outstanding offensive night and the Lady Warriors continuing to struggle to find offense. The defensive intensity for both teams had somehow grown stronger over the break, and the two teams were now engaged in a hard nosed, physical battle. Coaches for both teams were unhappy with how much physicality was being allowed, but play continued on.
With about two minutes left in the third, Egolf made a layup to give her 22 of the team’s 44 points while also extending her team’s lead to 20 points. The third quarter would end with the advantage now at 22, a tall hill for a Wawasee team that scored just five points in the previous quarter to climb.
The first half of the fourth quarter came and went without much of a Lady Warrior run taking place. As time continued to wind down, it seemed more and more like the Valley advantage was safe. With just a few minutes to go in the game, both teams took out a majority of their starters after senior Kelsey Cox drained a jumper. All four seniors that played in the game, Egolf, Miller Cox and Ava Smith received standing ovations. Valley’s fifth senior, Macy Petersen, could not play as she recovers from surgery.
“I was so proud of the way our seniors came out tonight, they played such a complete game,” Kindig said. Ava was huge for us scoring the ball, Chesnee was on point, and I can’t say enough about how far Kelsey has come along for us in the last three weeks of the season. I couldn’t be happier with this performance.
Egolf led all scorers in the game with 24 and eight rebounds, followed by Miller and her 14 points. Hackleman ended her evening with eight points while Olivia Horn added seven. Cox and Wawasee’s Kaydence Shepherd each had five.
Tippecanoe Valley (17-3) wraps up its regular season on Thursday at Manchester while Wawasee (13-8) will play at home on Thursday against Whitko.
“We want to establish that we’re a team that’s playing our best ball of the year at the right time and this will be a big test in that regard,” Kindig said. “Manchester is having a great team and [Brookelynn] Buzzard is a great player. She’s going to be a tough task for us to handle but we plan on going out on top.