Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MENTONE - Last Wednesday Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball coach Gary Teel said whoever could put together two solid defensive efforts would walk away with the 3A Valley Sectional championship.
If that statement is true, then Carroll is halfway to a sectional championship after disposing of Valley 67-50 in Thursday night's second semifinal-round game. Fort Wayne Elmhurst won the first semifinal game 69-59 over city rival Concordia to set up Saturday's championship game.
Carroll forced the Vikings to commit 13 turnovers in the first half, while the Chargers were victim to just seven.
Not only was their defense a step ahead of Valley, but so was their offense. Carroll connected on 26 of 52 (50 percent) attempts from the floor and made good on 9 of 10 (90 percent) free throws. Valley shot 17 of 45 (37.8 percent) from the floor for the game.
In the first half, with the game still undecided, the Vikings were 10 of 18 (55.6 percent) from the floor but only made good on 7 of 27 attempts in the third and fourth quarters.
Freshman Tabitha Pratt led Valley in the scoring column with 17 points. Rhonda Doud and Jennifer Studebaker added 16 and 11 points respectively in the losing effort. Valley finishesdthe season with an 11-10 record, 5-2 in the Three Rivers Conference. Carroll's Kate Rolf led all scorers with 39 points, including six three-pointers. The Chargers (11-9) will face Elmhurst at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the sectional championship.
"She averaged 16 points per game," said Teel of Rolf. "We didn't anticipate her to score 39, she had a career game. We used a box and one on her and did everything we could do."
Rolf scored seven of her team's first 11 points to give Carroll an early 11-4 advantage. Doud scored eight first-quarter points herself, including two three-pointers, to cut the deficit to 16-12 after one quarter of play.
Doud kept Valley's momentum going at the start of the second stanza with her ninth and tenth points of the half. Add to that baskets by Jennifer Baker and Pratt, and Valley knotted the score at 18 before taking a 20-18 lead on two Studebaker free throws with 3:50 remaining in the half.
"That was difficult for us to do," said Teel of having to play catchup most of the game. "The girls tried to take the ball to the basket and to score. Tonight just wasn't our night to win. We only had two turnovers in the second half, so that was good. Some of our shots just didn't go."
Pratt brought the Vikings within three, 30-27, at the onset of the third quarter, but seven consecutive points by Rolf and Carroll had quickly pushed the advantage to 11, 39-28. Valley ended the third quarter with a 7-0 run to cut Carroll's advantage to 41-35.
Valley was able to stay close throughout part of the final frame on the strength of a 9 of 10 performance at the charity stripe. Of Carroll's 18 fouls, 11 came in the second half.
"They played aggressive man to man defense and were very physical," said Teel. "We tried to get the free-throw line, and we knocked them down when we got there we just didn't get there enough."
For the game the Vikings shot 12 of 14 from the charity stripe. But it wasn't enough as the Chargers outscored them 26-15 in the fourth quarter to account for the 17-point win.
The loss for Valley ends the careers of five seniors, Doud, Baker, Jenny Sanders, Carrie Whetstone and Brooke Fisher. Valley has only two members of the starting five returning for next year, Pratt and Studebaker.
"I don't people predicted us to be 5-2 in the conference," said Teel. "Our seniors fought hard and they're the biggest part of bringing Valley basketball back. We have a lot coming back but Rhonda scored over 400 points this year, and Brooke and the others did a lot of good things and we have to replace all that, but after we give the girls about a month off we'll start getting ready for next year. There's a couple girls on this team, that with some hard work over the summer, could be a force next year."
CARROLL 67
VALLEY 50
Carroll 16 14 11 26-67
Valley 12 13 10 15-50
Carroll FG FT S R Pts.
Borror (G) 4-8 0-0 0 4 8
Rolf (G) 13-25 7-8 2 5 39
Sievers (G) 1-2 0-0 1 1 2
Easterhaus 1-2 2-2 0 0 4
Seele 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Winger 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Schortgen 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Muter 2-5 0-0 0 1 4
Baker (C) 2-2 0-0 0 0 4
Miller (F) 3-6 0-11 1 5 6
Krouse 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Gephart 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 26-53 9-11 4 18 67
Valley FG FT S R Pts
R. Doud (G) 5-12 4-4 0 4 16
Pratt (G) 6-18 3-4 0 5 17
Fisher (F0 1-3 2-2 1 4 4
Studebaker (C) 4-8 3-4 1 6 11
Sanders (G) 0-2 0-0 0 1 0
Baker 1-2 0-0 0 1 2
Pontious 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Martin 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Wilcox 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Whetstone 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
J. Doud 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Kindig 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 17-45 12-14 2 22 50
Three-pointers - Carroll 6 (Rolf 6), Valley 4 (R. Doud 2, Pratt 2). Turnovers - Carroll 10, Valley 15. Fouls - Carroll 18, Valley 17.
Referees - Bruce Klonowski, Doug Cook
