PLYMOUTH – Coach Chris Kindig wanted his team to get off to a good start Thursday as it tipped off a stretch of five consecutive road games. The Tippecanoe Valley Lady Vikings did just that, as they beat the Plymouth Lady Pilgrims 48-32 in a high school girls basketball game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score might suggest. Class 3A No. 8 Valley, trying to rebound from its only loss of the season, a 50-44 setback to undefeated 4A No. 10 Westfield, opened the game on an 11-0 run and then scored the first 20 points of the second quarter. The Lady Vikings led 35-9 at halftime, and then pulled out of their trapping defense and called off the dogs, so to speak, in the second half. By that time, though, the damage had already been done, and Plymouth got no closer than 14 points the rest of the way as the Lady Pilgrims fell to 6-2. “We talked before the game, the big emphasis for us tonight was coming out and getting off to a good start,” said Kindig, whose team improved to 6-1 on the season. “For example, Saturday night in the championship game of our tournament I think we came out 1 for 10 (from the field). It’s hard to win a basketball game like that. Against Portage (in the first game of the tournament) we didn’t start very well either. “It was really important for us to come out and get on them early tonight. We were up 11-0, that was a big key, but defensively I thought we played very, very well tonight. We took care of No. 24 (Alli Andrews). She’s a good shooter, she can light it up if you allow her to do that. And (Nicole) Horvath, she was pretty much a non-entity in the first half. “We built that big lead ... and you know, as we get down the line and we get in the tournament, we’ll have to play four quarters, but tonight it was enough to have two really good quarters. It’s really hard to stay intense when you’re up 20 or 25 points.” Horvath finished the game with six points, as did Cortni Cook, while Andrews and Lanae Singleton scored five each for the Lady Pilgrims. Halle Reichard led Plymouth with 10 points, of which she scored in the second half after Valley pulled out of its 1-3-1 trap. Anne Secrest and Meredith Brouyette scored 12 points each for Valley, while Brynda Krueger finished with 10. Addy Miller chipped in with six points in the win, while Hannah Dunn and Sophie Bussard rounded out the Lady Vikings’ scoring with five and three points, respectively. “We had a great first half tonight,” said Kindig. “It was probably as well as we’ve played for two quarters all year long. That’s kind of what we’ve been looking for. We’re still trying to find our way a little bit, but when you have your shooters hitting, and we have Dunn and Secrest inside ... it’s nice to have that inside/outside combination.” Brouyette scored all 12 of her points in the first half, a performance that include three treys. Secrest, Valley’s 6-foot-2 post player that has committed to play at NCAA Division I Youngstown State University, scored eight of her 12 points in the first half. While the Lady Vikings were scoring inside and outside in the first half, Plymouth struggled to control the ball. The Lady Pilgrims, facing Valley’s stingy press, committed 15 turnovers in the first half. “Sometime’s we’re not necessarily trying to steal it, we’re trying to see if they’ll turn it over, or do something silly,” Kindig said of his defense. “And then maybe we’ll trap the first pass out of that, it just depends, we mix it up here and there. The girls really seem to like to play it and they play it pretty well. “And when you look at our man-to-man, we really played that well tonight, too. We were able to mix our defenses up and play pretty well. I thought that threw Plymouth off balance, particularly in the first half.” Valley is in action again Saturday in a key Three Rivers Conference game at Wabash, followed by trips to Triton, North Miami and Winamac, before hosting league foe Whitko on Dec. 19. “This was our first of five consecutive away games,” said Kindig. “We have a big conference game on Saturday night at Wabash. We typically haven’t played real well at Wabash, so we’re looking forward to enjoy this, but also getting ready for a big game at Wabash.”
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 48, PLYMOUTH 32 TV 11 24 7 6 – 48 Ply 4 5 12 11 – 32 Valley – Olivia Trippiedi 0-0 0-0 0, Karis Tucker 0-0 0-0 0, Meredith Brouyette 4-11 1-2 12, Addy Miller 2-4 0-0 6, Sophie Bussard 1-3 0-0 3, Brynda Krueger 2-4 6-8 10, Morgan Brazo 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Dunn 2-6 1-4 5, Anne Secrest 4-8 4-4 12. Totals 15-36 12-18 48. Plymouth – Kaylee Haynes 0-1 0-0 0, Ashley Harrell 0-1 0-0 0, Cortni Cook 2-4 0-0 6, Halle Reichard 4-11 1-2 10, Jennah Nifong 0-0 0-0 0, Alli Andrews 1-5 1-2 5, Kara Morwood 0-0 0-0 0, Lanae Singleton 2-2 1-2 5, Nicole Horvath 2-5 1-3 6. Totals 11-29 4-9 32. Three-pointers – Valley 6 (Brouyette 3, Miller 2, Bussard), Plymouth 4 (Cook 2, Reichard, Andrews); Rebounds – Valley 18, Plymouth 18; Turnovers – Valley 8, Plymouth 18; Fouls – Valley 12, Plymouth 14; Fouled out – none; Records: Valley 6-1, Plymouth 6-2 JV – Plymouth 50, Valley 14
