AKRON — Two days after a 44-point win over Whitko, the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team was right back at it Monday, posting another victory, improving to 9-2 on the year.
Playing their second game in three days, the Tippecanoe Valley Lady Vikings hosted the North Judson-San Pierre Lady Bluejays (7-3), and after falling behind early, came back to get a 62-56 win.
“I’d say we didn’t play as well as we did Saturday, but that’s natural,” Valley coach Chris Kindig said. “We didn’t have time to prepare for Judson. We came in with a little bit of a disadvantage, but the girls hung tough, hit some big shots and played well enough to win it.”
Early on, Judson routinely made good post passes, helping the Lady Bluejays make 8 of 11 shots to take a 19-13 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
“In the first quarter, I thought we were a little bit lethargic,” Kindig said. “We want to come out and play a little bit better than that. I don’t think our effort was completely there in the first quarter. “
Valley came out a little more inspired in the second stanza, and got a lift from freshman Caylie Teel.
Fresh off playing two quarters of the junior varsity game, Teel made her presence felt immediately, stealing a pass and taking it all the way for a layup, giving Valley the lead at 21-20 with 4:35 remaining in the first half.
In the quarter, the 5-foot-7 guard made all four of her shots, netting eight points, and went on to record 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, while also posting three rebounds, three steals and an assist in three quarters of work.
“It may have been a breakthrough for fans, but I’ve been expecting it,” Kindig said of Teel, who also had 10 points, four rebounds and three steals in Saturday’s win. “She’s been playing better on the (junior varsity), and what’s going to happen is — she’s going to play herself into only varsity minutes and there isn’t going to be any JV. We played her a lot tonight, but she did a nice job of handling the ball and did a great job defensively.”
While Teel was helping to get Valley the lead, it was senior Staci Groom who put the finishing touches on the Lady Bluejays, hitting three second-half three pointers to build Valley’s lead to 15.
“Groom had a couple 3s to give us that nice cushion,” Kindig said.
On the night, Groom led the Lady Vikings with 23 points, while seniors Megan Bibler and Tory Keirn each had eight.
For the second-straight game, Valley shot over 50 percent, following Saturday’s 62-percent performance by making 21 of 39 (54 percent) against North Judson.
“If we continue to shoot the ball in a 45-50 percent range — with the way we play defense — we’re going to win a lot of games this year,” Kindig said.
And that has proven true.
To this point, Valley’s only setbacks have been against the Warsaw Lady Tigers (7-1) and Class 1A No. 5 Triton Lady Trojans (8-1), but after going 5-15 in his first season as coach, Kindig is cherishing every win.
“Coming from 5-15, every win is big,” he said. “We’re making progress. If we can continue to improve, I think we can be a pretty good team in the second half (of the season) too.”
Since the 44-39 overtime loss at Triton on Dec. 7, Valley has gone 4-0, winning by an average margin of 26.8 points.
But now, Valley will take some time off for the holiday season, not returning to action until Jan. 3 at home against West Noble (7-4).
“We’re going to give the girls some time off this week, then come back on Monday and get ready to go,” Kindig said.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 62, NORTH JUDSON-SAN PIERRE 56 J 19 9 9 19 — 56 V 13 18 16 15 — 62 Valley — Staci Groom 6-11 8-10 23, Danielle Bussard 0-2 0-1 0, Megan Bibler 3-4 2-4 8, Kelsey Ball 2-3 0-0 4, Tory Keirn 2-6 3-4 8, Caylie Teel 6-7 3-4 15, Brooke O’Connor 1-5 0-0 2, Connor Fraser 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-39 16-23 62. Judson — Haley Frasure 2-4 2-2 8, Dana Timm 1-2 0-0 3, Kayla Zimmerman 4-8 2-3 10, Elisabeth White 5-11 3-4 13, Jordan Frasure 7-12 4-6 18, Ashley Mosher 0-0 2-2 2, Lexi Messer 0-1 2-2 2, Kenley Sanchez 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-39 15-19 56. Three-point goals — Valley 4-6 (Groom 3, Keirn), Judson 3-8 (H. Frasure 2, Timm); Turnovers — Valley 14, Judson 20; Team Fouls (fouled out) — Valley 18, Judson 16 (White); Rebounds — Valley 15 (Ball 3, Keirn 3, Teel 3), Judson 20 (J. Frasure 8); Assists — Valley 13 (Bussard 4), Judson 14 (H. Frasure 5, J. Frasure 5); Steals — Valley 11 (Bussard 3, Teel 3), Judson 3; Blocks — Valley 5 (Ball 2, O’Connor 2), Judson 0; Records — Valley 9-2, Judson 7-3. JV — Judson 35, Valley 25 Valley JV Scoring — Cara Hoffman 9, Teel 6, Taylor Trippiedi 2, Robyn Dunnuck 2, Kristen Malott 2, Casey Dunn 2, Madison Strong 2.
