Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON - While veteran coach Bill Patrick sat on the bench with a temperature near 102 degrees, his Tippecanoe Valley varsity boys basketball team had little trouble putting a healthy whipping on Three Rivers Conference opponent Southwood.
A night after the Vikings gave Patrick his 600th career win, victory No. 601 came with little trouble and was in the bag after an 18-0 run in the first half.
Behind three double-digit scorers and strong defensive play, Class 3A No. 5 Valley thrashed the visiting Knights 72-39.
"Our defense was key," said Patrick, whose team team improved to 18-0 overall and 7-0 in the TRC with its 16th straight win. "We played pretty good defense. We did a good job getting out on their three-point shooters."
Southwood, which fell to 9-9 overall and 3-4 in TRC play, finished the game 13 of 48 (27.1 percent) from the field and 6 of 17 (35.3 percent) from from three-point range.
The Vikings, on the other hand, were 28 of 52 (53.8 percent) from the field and 7 of 11 (63.6 percent) from three-point range.
The Vikings already had their sixth consecutive TRC championship in the bag. What Saturday's 33-point win over the Knights did was give Valley its second straight undefeated conference season.
"That's two years in a row," said Patrick. "It's tough to win the TRC, much less go undefeated two years in a row. It's a good conference, and we've been fortunate the last six years."
Southwood was anything but fortunate Saturday night.
After 6-foot-6 wide-body junior Sergey Struck hit a three-pointer to knot the game at three with 7:24 remaining the first quarter, the host Vikings broke loose and went on an 18-0 run and eventually led 34-9 at halftime.
If it were a boxing match and the opponents were feeling each other out in the early going, consider Valley's run the knockout punch.
Southwood was never able to recover and trailed 55-22 after three quarters and ended up losing by that 33-point margin.
A night after 6-4 junior David Lash dropped 29 points on non-conference rival Triton, 6-6 classmate Shane Drudge led the way with 24 points against Southwood.
Drudge had seven points at halftime, and at one point missed five straight shots, but made up for it in the third quarter when he scored 13 of his 17 second-half points.
In a game that was decided in the first quarter, Drudge's match up with Struck provided any excitement the game had.
Struck was able to block a Drudge shot attempt, and Drudge the same of Struck, but it was the Valley frontliner who got the best of his opponent.
Struck finished the game 6 of 16 from the field and scored 16 points, while Drudge missed just two shots in the second half and was 10 of 18 from the field en route to his game-high 24 points.
"He's a handful," Patrick said of Struck. "He's really a nice player. I thought Shane Drudge did a nice job. When he plays a big kid, he seems to pick it up."
Shane Denny added 12 points and eight rebounds, while John Gibson added 11 points and six rebounds. Lash finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds.
To go with Struck's 16 points, the Knights got 12 points from Aaron Shaw and five from Nick Oprisek.
Valley is in action again Friday in the regular season finale against Wawasee.
VALLEY 72, SOUTHWOOD 39
Southwood 3 6 13 17 - 39
Tipp Valley 19 15 21 17 - 72
SWood FG FT R S Pts.
* Faust 1-5 0-0 0 0 3
* Grizzle 1-4 0-0 6 1 2
* Oprisek 2-9 0-0 0 0 5
* Struck 6-16 2-2 7 0 16
* Shaw 3-8 4-4 3 2 12
McKee 0-0 0-0 3 2 0
K.Bowman 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Dawson 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
E.Bowman 0-3 0-0 3 1 0
Finch 0-2 1-2 0 1 1
Schoening 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 13-49 7-8 25 7 32
T. Valley FG FT R S Pts.
* Denny 6-8 0-0 8 2 12
* Gibson 4-6 0-0 6 1 11
* Dmnico 0-4 2-2 1 0 2
* Lash 3-5 3-4 8 2 9
* Drudge 10-18 3-5 6 0 24
Hoffer 1-2 0-0 0 0 2
Parker 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Kindig 0-0 1-2 1 0 1
Kelley 2-4 0-0 3 2 6
Reed 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Nelson 1-1 0-0 1 1 2
Neeley 1-2 0-0 0 1 3
Totals 28-52 9-13 35 10 72
Three-point goals - Southwood 6-17 (Struck 2-4, Shaw 2-4, Oprisek 1-5, Faust 1-3, Grizzle 0-1), Valley 7-11 (Gibson 3-4, Kelley 2-2, Neeley 1-2, Drudge 1-1, Domenico 0-2). Turnovers - Southwood 15, Valley 9. Fouls - Southwood 10, Valley 9. Fouled out - none.
JV - T. Valley 52, Southwood 38
