Balance Has Valley Poised For Run

AKRON - Superstars, not teams, win championships nowadays, right? Don't tell that to the Detroit Pistons, who won the NBA championship last year, and don't tell that to Tippecanoe Valley, either.

Without a 20-point scorer or a division-I recruit, the Vikings have only managed a 22-1 record, the state's second longest winning streak at 19 games, extending a conference winning streak to 16, a sixth straight Three Rivers Conference Championship and the school's sixth sectional title this year.

While the area has taken notice, those outside are slow to respond.

Valley finished fifth in the final 3A poll behind a four-loss Pendleton Heights team and three two-loss teams in Washington, Bellmont and Andrean.

Pendleton Heights has Southern Illinois-bound Nick Rogers, while Washington's Luke Zeller is going to Notre Dame and Bellmont's Adam Arnold and Aaron Richie are going to Indiana State and Central Michigan, respectively. Big Ten schools like Ohio State are looking at Luke Harangody, Andrean's 6-foot-7 junior center.

Valley doesn't have one dominant player - they have a rotation of eight who are all dangerous.

But with every win, naysayers bring up a strength of schedule that ranks somewhere in the 200s or that Valley plays in a conference with mostly 2A schools.

"We're used to it. But what most people don't look at is the teams we play a lot of times don't have a good record but when they play us they play the game of their lives every time," said Shane Denny of being overlooked.

And it's not like Valley is playing St. Mary's of the Perpetually Sick either.

Six of the teams the Vikings have gone against this year - Argos, Glenn, Plymouth, Northfield, West Central and Wawasee - won their sectionals. Valley is 5-1 in those games with its lone loss coming to Plymouth, 52-49 in the third game of the season.

While they may have a chance to avenge that loss at the semistate level, the Vikings must first survive one of the best regional fields in the state.

Those Warriors from Syracuse will be the first challenge in the second game of the 3A regional at NorthWood High School.

Valley beat Wawasee in the season finale and is looking to make it two for the chance to play for the school's second regional title.

This year the Vikings are bringing more firepower than previous campaigns.

In the past, the scoring brunt and attention of opposing teams fell on one player like Trey Eaton or Cody New.

This year's it's all about balance.

Denny and junior David Lash lead the Vikings in scoring with both averaging more than 13 points per game.

Lash has led the team in scoring the most times this year at nine while Denny has eight times.

"David probably competes as hard as anyone we've got. He's been satisfied with not forcing any shots and doing what needs to be done for us to win. Denny kind of leads by work habits and plays hard on both defense and offense. I think he's one of the keys to the team," said Valley coach Bill Patrick of his two leading scorers.

But depending on matchups, the Vikings can go in other directions.

Against Southwood and their 6-foot-7 center Sergey Struck, it was 6-6 junior Shane Drudge who led Valley with 24 points.

"He's a solid player, one of our better outside shooters and has been able to put the ball on the floor and take it inside," said Patrick of Drudge.

Guard Michael Domenico was clutch against the Warriors and along with Denny and John Gibson scored 12 points.

"He's really gotten better the last half of the season," said Patrick of his 5-10 point guard. "He's an outside shooter and he's done a better job of penetrating and his defense has gotten a lot better."

Gibson scored a season-high 22 points in a 77-51 victory over Bremen.

"Gibson's more of a penetrator. He's pretty aggressive on defense. He's a leader vocally," said Patrick.

In all, seven players have led the Vikings in scoring this season.

But it wasn't supposed to come together like this. Not this year.

With the loss of leading scorer Cory Vanlaningham and three other seniors, this wasn't a rebuilding year by any means, but a 21-win campaign wasn't in the cards.

"I think this group of kids are playing at a higher level than most people thought they would. I don't think most people thought they'd win 21 games. So I think maybe they're overachievers possibly but I think the key to that is they play so well together. They really don't care who scores. They're really unselfish," said Patrick.

What doubters didn't realize is that Patrick has real students of the game on his team.

This group is acutely aware of things that most high school basketball players aren't. They can tell you how many blocks they had against Wawasee and how many assists per game they average as a team or even one another's field goal percentage.

That sort of attention to detail comes from the top down with Patrick and his assistant head coach son Chad.

"Control the things you can control," said Lash of what the coaching staff has stressed.

"This year, the two things that both coaches have really pounded on us this year are rebounding and turnovers," said Gibson.

The Vikings have improved in the rebounding department but still struggle at times with turnovers. In the win over Wawasee, the Vikings committed 25 turnovers.

One area this team could run a clinic on is distributing the ball. The team averages nearly 20 assists per game.

"If someone has the hot hand you look for them," said Gibson. "Like Drudge got hot against (Wawasee) so you just look for him."

"They understand the game. And this group understands that scoring is just a small part of the game. Rebounding, assists and free throw shooting. Things like that are important. They've bought into the team concept more than a lot of teams have," said Patrick.

That team concept has carried over to the locker room as well. This team is known to hang around the gym with each other for up to an hour after practice.

If Valley wants to keep hanging around they must first upend Wawasee with a noon tipoff set for Saturday. The winner of the game will take on the winner of the Bellmont/Delta game set for 10 a.m. The regional championship will begin at 8 p.m.