AKRON – Tippecanoe Valley’s offense struggled at times in Tuesday night’s Class 3A Sectional 21 opener. The fourth-ranked Lady Vikings, however, made up for it defensively. Hosting the sectional for the first time since 2007, Valley held the Wawasee Lady Warriors scoreless through the first 13 minutes of the game, gave up just six points in the first half and cruised to a 62-34 win. As the sports adage goes, offense wins games, defense wins championships. The Lady Vikings took a step toward a sectional championship, improving to 22-1 with their 17th-straight win and advancing to Friday’s 6 p.m. semifinal against West Noble (16-7). NorthWood (14-11) beat Lakeland 65-30 in Tuesday’s other game and will play Fairfield (12-9) in Friday’s second semifinal. The sectional final is slated for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. “Some nights you win with offense, some nights you win with defense,” said Valley coach Chris Kindig, who’s team shot 50 percent from the floor, but was just 2 of 10 in the first quarter. “Our defense really set the tone for us. We weren’t really in a great flow offensively in the first half. We were a little nervous, turned the ball over a few times. We only ended up with 10 turnovers, but I think a couple of them were in the first quarter, that first two or three minutes. Our defense carried us.” The Lady Vikings, who scored 50 points in the first half of last week’s 72-34 win over Wawasee, led 8-0 after the first quarter Tuesday, 24-6 at halftime and 40-19 heading into the final frame. The Lady Warriors, whose season ended with an 8-15 record, didn’t get on the scoreboard until junior Hannah Haines’ bucket with 5:10 remaining in the first half. By that time, Valley was already up 13-0. Wawasee was 0 of 8 from the field in the opening quarter and just 2 of 21 in the first half. “I was so proud of our kids for the gameplan, I thought we did an excellent job there,” said Wawasee coach Kem Zolman. “Going from what you saw in the first game last week to now, there was a tremendous difference. I knew we’d play better there, but when you can’t score it just gets tougher and tougher each time. That’s been the story of our year. “I thought we looked at them as if they were gods. I thought we looked at them like we were scared to make a move.” After scoring just six points in the first half, the Lady Warriors scored 13 in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth. Senior Kylee Rostochak led Wawasee with 10 points, while Haines and senior Erin Wiktorowski chipped in with nine and six points, respectively. Three-time Area Player of the Year Anne Secrest fought through a 4-of-11 shooting performance and finished the game with 13 points and 12 rebounds for Valley, while fellow junior Meredith Brouyette was 4 of 4 from the field, including 3 of 3 from the arc, en route to 13 points. Junior Hannah Dunn and senior Brynda Krueger chipped in with nine and seven points, respectively, in the win. “I thought offensively Anne struggled a little bit tonight, but defensively she got rebounds and was a presence in there,” said Kindig. “So was Hannah Dunn. I don’t know how many blocked shots we had, but there were several times where Wawasee got the ball in th lane but they were hesitant because of our length. We’ve got three or four girls that can cover a lot of space. “If you put Brynda Krueger out there, or Sophie Bussard, or Karis Tucker, defensively we can mix and match. We can go defense or we can go offense, depending on what we do. I think we’re a pretty tough matchup for most teams.”
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 62, WAWASEE 34 Waw 0 6 13 15 – 34 TV 8 16 16 22 – 62 Wawasee – Kabrea Rostochak 0 3-4 3, Hannah-Marie Lamle 1 0-0 2, Casey Schroeder 0 0-0 0, Hannah Haines 3 2-2 9, Aubrey Kuhn 0 0-0 0, Kylee Rostochak 3 4-5 10, Madison Beaman 0 0-0 0, Erin Wiktorowski 2 0-0 6, Seaquinn Bright 1 0-0 2, Aubrey Schmeltz 0 2-4 2. Totals 10 11-15 34. Valley – Olivia Trippiedi 0 4-4 4, Karis Tucker 1 2-2 5, Meredith Brouyette 4 2-2 13, Taneisha Brown 0 0-0 0, Addy Miller 2 1-2 3, Sophie Bussard 1 2-4 4, Sarah Tucker 0 0-0 0, Brynda Krueger 2 3-4 7, Asia O’Connor 1 0-0 2, Hannah Dunn 3 3-4 9, Anne Secrest 4 5-7 13. Totals 18 22-29 62. Three-pointers – Wawasee 3 (Wiktorowski 2, Haines), Valley 4 (Brouyette 3, K. Tucker); Fouls – Wawasee 18, Valley 15; Fouled out – Kuhn; Records: Wawasee 8-15, Valley 22-1 Other game: NorthWood 65, Lakeland 30
