Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SOUTHWOOD AT VALLEY
Tip-off: 6 p.m. Tuesday in Mentone
Coaches: Steve McClure (Southwood), Bill Patrick (Valley)
Records: Southwood 10-2, 1-2 TRC; Valley 10-4, 4-1 TRC
Last game: Southwood 59, Caston 36; Manchester 84, Valley 49
Last year: Southwood 66, Valley 62
Matchup: Valley enters tonight's TRC matchup on the heels of a 35-point loss to Manchester, its only loss in the conference ... Prior to the loss, the Vikings had won six in a row ... Valley's scoring attack is headed by the one-two punch of Brandon Eaton (15.6 ppg.) and Jarvis Shepherd (15.2 ppg.) ... Eric Prater leads Valley in rebounding with 6.1 boards per game ... Southwood's Paul Wright leads the TRC in scoring at 21.3 points per game. He also pulls down 7.0 rebounds per game ... Nick Dawson and Shawn Zellers add to the Southwood effort with eight and six points respectively.
McClure: "Valley traditionally has good athletes. They play hard, and throw Bill Patrick into the mix, and it's another level. When I was at Northfield and he was at Whitko, we competed a lot. He'll have his team ready. Mentally, I think they might have an advantage coming back from their loss. Defensively we're either really good or really bad. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up."
Patrick: "They're one of the better teams we'll play the rest of the year. Paul Wright leads the conference in scoring. He's a left-handed shooter who shoots the ball well. He'll be tough to contain. They have as good of quickness as anyone in the conference. Tom Wright also shoots the ball well, and they have some kids inside. Nick Dawson does a good job rebounding. We have to handle their press. They change their defense a lot. We also have to hold Wright under 20. We'd like to keep him at 15 or 18, and not let the others hurt us. We have to rebound better than we have the last two or three games, especially offensively."
