Backyard rivals Rochester and Tippecanoe Valley played a pair of high-stakes girls basketball games last season, and this year’s matchup is no different. In 2015, the Lady Vikings won a regular season game 52-40 in Akron on their way to the Three Rivers Conference title, then took a rematch 60-45 in an epic semistate game played in front of a full house in Warsaw Feb. 28. Both teams sport 5-0 records in the TRC going into Saturday night’s 7:45 p.m. contest in Rochester and are two games clear of third place. So the winner of the game is likely to take the conference title for 2016. With Rochester the No. 1 team in Class 2A there will be no postseason rematch with Class 3A’s No. 5 team in the Lady Vikings this time around. Even with Valley’s two wins last season, the Lady Vikings (15-1 overall) have hardly been dominant over Rochester. Last season’s win in Akron was the first for Valley in three seasons over the Lady Zebras, and the Lady Vikings are 3-4 in their last seven trips to Rochester (16-0 overall this season). “Since we’re both undefeated in the conference, and I don’t see either team losing a bunch of games after this one, it’s a big game in terms of winning the conference championship. But I wouldn’t put it in the same category as last year’s semistate game,” Valley head coach Chris Kindig said. “For a regular season game, it’s important, and since it’s at their place, it’ll be a challenge. “We’ve been pretty competitive with them recently, but we haven’t had a lot of luck on their floor, at least since I’ve been here. And I think they play extremely well at home. I don’t know what their home record is over the last two or three years, but they’re awfully good at home. I’d bet they’re 10-15 points better at home. So we’re going to have to play extremely well Saturday night to win the basketball game.” As usual, Valley will be led by two-time Times-Union player of the year Anne Secrest in the middle. The junior cleared 1,000 points for her career in a win over Northfield on Jan. 7 and averages 14.3 points a game in TRC play, good for second in the conference. She’s aided by classmate Meredith Brouyette (10.1 PPG) and sophomore Addy Miller (13.5 PPG in the TRC), both solid shooters from beyond the arc that give Valley an inside-out offense. Rochester will be missing a key component, as senior Keaton Stesiak is out for the year with a leg injury. But classmates Becky Malchow (10.9 PPG), Ali Larkin (7.4 PPG) and Alexa Holland (16.8 PPG, ninth in the TRC)), like Stesiak, have been playing varsity-level basketball since they were freshmen. “It seems like those four have been around forever. (Stesiak) was one of their keys; she’s not very big in stature, but plays way above her size,” Kindig said. “She helped them on the boards and was a good, solid offensive player. She’s such a tough-nosed kid, and not having her is going to hurt them not only in their starting lineup, but in terms of depth also.” Sophomore center Kennedy Musselman has stepped up to give the Lady Zebras a strong inside presence that has given teams problems all season long. “Musselman has improved a lot since last year. She’s a big post presence and a lot of teams have a hard time matching up with her,” Kindig said. “I think we’ll be OK there, but then you have the problem of guarding Malchow, Larkin and Holland, their three outside shooters. They pose a lot of problems defensively, especially when Musselman’s playing well and they have the option of getting the ball into the post. So we’ll have to guard both areas, and that’s going to be tough.” Kindig said for the Lady Vikings to be successful they will need to treat the basketball like a precious commodity. “I think we’ll need to be patient. When we watch them on film, they really like to turn you over, try to have you make one or two passes and then try and steal it. With their quickness and a lack of overall size, that’s what they do,” Kindig said. “We’ll need to value each possession, make three or four passes each possession and make sure we have several people touching the ball every time down the floor. “I think if we’re able to do that, we’ll have an advantage inside with Anne Secrest, Brynda Krueger (7.3 PPG) and Hannah Dunn (8.0 PPG in the conference). It’ll be interesting to see what wins out, their guard play or the post play on the interior. I think if you see us with 15-20 turnovers, we’ll have problems. We had a lot of turnovers in the semistate game last year, but I think on Saturday we’ll need to keep our turnovers around 10 or 12. If we can do that, we’ll have a lot of good opportunities to score.” Rochester is averaging 55 points a game, while Valley is just over 59 per contest. Each is holding their opponents to fewer than 34 points a game. While the neighborly rivalry always adds spice to the regular season schedule, the games recently have had more than bragging rights at stake. “I’m sure both teams have been looking forward to the rematch; I just wish it was on a neutral court. I’m sure our girls are really excited about playing it,” Kindig said. “This is one of those games where you know why you put in the time in the summer, to play in the big games like this, in front of a big crowd with a lot of interest locally, and to play for championships.”
