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NORTH JUDSON - The Tippecanoe Valley girls' basketball team plays a schedule loaded with winning programs - and the Lady Vikings' record proves it.
Valley dropped to 4-7 on the season at the hands of 9-2 North Judson, 65-46, Tuesday. All but one opponent the Lady Vikes have faced this year - Bremen - has a winning record. Valley has dropped six of the past eight games after a 2-1 start.
Tippecanoe Valley head coach Mike Walters, in his second year at the helm, was disappointed in his team's play.
"We still make the same mistakes," Walters said. "We get close, and boom, we make a turnover. ... We were hanging with them. The longer we stayed with them, the better off we were."
Valley stayed close to the high-flying Blue Jays for a little over a quarter. The Vikings led 14-13 at the end of the first frame thanks to a buzzer-beater from sophomore Rhonda Doud, and later tied North Judson 20-20 when junior Brandi Fisher got two to roll.
From that point on, North Judson scored nine unanswered points and the Vikes never challenged again. The Blue Jays got four of their nine points off offensive rebounds in the critical stretch, a fact that wasn't far from Walters' mind following the game.
"Two things killed us - turnovers and rebounding. How many offensive boards did they get. That's been our emphasis the last three weeks - blockouts. We just didn't do it."
The Blue Jays, on the strength of a 22-9 second quarter advantage, extended their lead to 35-23 at the halftime break.
Tippecanoe Valley needed to come out strong in the third quarter to get back in contention, and it just didn't materialize for the Valley. North Judson's first attempt resulted in a trifecta from sophomore Jamie Sturgell with 7:45 on the clock, and she followed that up with another trey 32 seconds later to make to margin 16, 41-25.
The lead grew to as much as 48-29 for North Judson, but three points from senior Sondra Hamilton and four from Doud cut the margin to 50-36 entering the fourth frame.
Tippecanoe Valley pulled within 11 twice in the last stanza - 50-39 when Amy Nellans scored a duece with 6:39 to play and 54-43 after a three-pointer by Doud - but that was as close as TV would get.
North Judson closed out the game with an 11-3 run over the last four minutes to account for the 65-46 win. Hamilton scored a free throw and senior Kara Tucker ended the scoring for the Vikes win the a bucket 38 seconds to play.
Fisher led the Lady Vikings with 11 points and eight rebounds. Doud ended the night with 10, and Tucker tallied eight. Sophomore Bonnie Bickel scored five.
Tippecanoe Valley (4-7, 0-1 Three Rivers Conference) battles Conference rival Southwood Thursday in Wabash. Six of the last seven games on the Valley schedule are TRC battles. The Vikings need to five of their last seven games to enter the Warsaw sectional with a .500-record.
