Lady Vikings Cruise Past WawaseeSYRACUSE – Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball coach Chris Kindig was well aware of Wawasee’s highlights on the court this season. Kindig had his 3A No. 8 Lady Vikings well-prepared, and it showed in a 48-21 rout of the Lady Warriors Tuesday night at the Hardwood Tepee. Wawasee had wins this month over perennial power NorthWood and 2A No. 1 Whitko. Kindig made a point to insure his Lady Vikings didn’t look past Wawasee’s record (now 9-12 overall). “We watched a lot of film on them. I was concerned about getting outrebounded and they do a great job of taking care of the basketball.” Kindig said. “They don’t have anybody that you say ‘we have to stop this person’ because they get six or seven girls involved in their scoring. “But we came out with the right mindset. We got up early and picked up the defensive intensity. Really, I’m pleased with just about everything we did tonight.” Very little went wrong for Valley. After a first-quarter tie at 6-6, the Lady Vikings went on a 12-2 run to take a 10-point lead into the second period and never let Wawasee back in the game. Wawasee came in averaging better than 44 points a game, but Valley held the Lady Warriors to 14 points in the first half, and shut them out in the fourth quarter. “We’ve been improving defensively all year long. The last few games we’ve done a real nice job. We mixed it up a little bit, played some man-to-man, played a little bit of zone here and there, but we did a good job, especially in the second half,” Kindig said. “I thought it was important for us to cut off their dribble penetration and get out on their three-point shooters and force them to pass the ball inside more. It gets harder to hit the little jump shot when you get down eight or 10 points.” Wawasee head coach Matt Carpenter recognized his team didn’t have the same effort against Valley that was there in the big wins earlier this month. “(Valley) played like they’re capable of playing, give them a lot of credit. They’re a fantastic basketball team that plays physical, and they knock down shots,” Carpenter said. “But what I’m disappointed with is we didn’t play like we’re capable of. We didn’t execute, and it started right from the get-go when they made a couple of shots early, and all of a sudden I saw a mentality from the girls that I hadn’t seen in a long time. But that’s also something we can fix. “We’ve been playing good basketball over the last two or three weeks, and we talked about how this is either going to be a roadblock to what we can do down the stretch here, or a speed bump. And this better be a speed bump. You better believe my girls are going to be ready to go on Thursday (vs. Concord).” Senior Hannah Haines and sophomore Casey Schroeder paced Wawasee with six points each. Haines hit a pair of treys for the Lady Warrior points in the second quarter, and Schroeder hit all four of her free throw attempts for most of her points. Valley, winners of five games in a row and 9 of 10, was led by junior Addy Miller’s 13 points. Senior Anne Secrest had 12 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks for the Lady Vikings. Tippecanoe Valley (19-4) wraps up its regular season with a home game against Manchester Thursday. A win wraps up a third straight outright Three Rivers Conference title for the Lady Vikings.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 48 WAWASEE 21 TV 14 14 15 5 – 48 W 8 6 7 0 – 21 Valley – Olivia Trippiedi 0-1 0-0 0, Meredith Brouyette 1-3 0-0 2, Taneisha Brown 0-0 0-1 0, Addy Miller 5-7 0-1 13, Sophie Bussard 4-6 1-4 9, Emily Peterson 2-3 0-0 4, Asia O’Connor 1-2 0-1 2, Makenzie Woodcox 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Dunn 3-7 0-0 6, Anne Secrest 3-7 5-6 12. Totals 19-36 6-13 48. Wawasee – McKenzie Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Kayla White 0-1 0-0 0, Kabrea Rostochak 1-4 0-2 2, Hannah-Marie Lamle 1-3 0-0 2, Casey Schroeder 1-5 4-4 6, Hannah Haines 2-9 0-0 6, Aubrey Kuhn 1-5 1-2 3, Caitlin Wortinger 0-0 0-0 0, Madison Beaman 0-1 0-0 0, Seaquinn Bright 0-3 0-2 0, Aubrey Schmeltz 1-7 0-0 2. Totals 7-38 5-10 21. Three-pointers – Valley 4 (Miller 3, O’Connor), Wawasee 2 (Haines 2); Rebounds – Valley 33 (Secrest 14), Wawasee 21 (Bright 6); Turnovers – Valley 13, Wawasee 13; Fouls – Valley 10, Wawasee 12; Fouled out – none; Records: Valley 19-4, Wawasee 9-12. JV?– Wawasee 33, Valley 30 Valley – Emma Craig 12, Jillian Walls 8, Makenzie Woodcox 4, Faith Kemp 2, Kennedie Brooks 2, Sarah Tucker 2. Wawasee – Morgan Adkins 14, McKenzie Smith 7, Sara Pritchard 4, Caitlin Wortinger 4, Hannah Lancaster 2, Kiersten Beckner 2.
