AKRON – Three just wasn’t Tippecanoe Valley’s magic number Friday night.
In the third game of the season, a game the Vikings lost by three points to the visiting Knox Redskins, they scored just three points in the third quarter.
Valley boys basketball coach Chad Patrick was proud of his team’s rally after being down 10 points to start the final frame, but couldn’t overlook the disappointment of the third quarter in the 41-38 loss.
“Horrible,” Patrick said of the third quarter, in which Knox turned a 1-point halftime advantage into a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
“Even after that we were still in position to win. In the first half, we gave them three wide open layups because we didn’t know who we were guarding. In the second half, we had three wide open layups that we missed. That’s 12 points ... that’s big.
“We kind of got back into what we did last year at times ... having one bad quarter, and that kills you.”
Valley, now 1-2 on the season, trailed 9-8 after one quarter of play, 20-19 at halftime and 32-22 at the end of the third.
Six-foot senior Cameron Parker scored Valley’s three points in the third quarter, making a basket and a free throw.
He got winded, said Patrick, trying to defend Knox senior Eian Coad, who scored 10 of the Redskins’ 12 points in the pivotal third quarter and a game-high 19 points overall to go with eight rebounds.
“Cam started to get tired, he was chasing Coad all night,” said Patrick. “He did an amazing job on him, he’s averaging almost 30 points a game and he held him to two in the first half. But he got tired, and that hurt us in the second half.
“We went to that 1-3-1 trap in the fourth quarter, and I probably should have went to it sooner, but I watched two tapes on Knox and both teams pressed them and trapped them the whole game, but Knox blew them out. They just didn’t have any problems with it.
“I thought that was the last thing we could do, but we were kind of forced to do it. The kids were kind of down after the third quarter, and I promised them that if they worked hard that we would be back in the game. That’s what I really wanted, because a game like that last year we would have lost by 20 points. This year’s team isn’t giving up.”
Creating havoc and turnovers with their trapping defense, the Vikings opened the fourth quarter with a 13-4 run, cutting Knox’s advantage to 36-35 when senior Wes Melanson hit a three-pointer with 1:50 remaining.
After falling behind by four, a three-pointer by Melanson – one that he banked in – with 14 seconds left cut Knox’s lead to 39-38.
Coad scored the game’s final two points at the charity stripe with just under 10 seconds remaining.
Valley got a pair of three-point attempts off in the waning seconds, but both were off the mark.
The Vikings finished the game 6 of 27 from the arc.
Parker led Valley with 14 points, while junior Tanner Trippiedi scored 12 and Melanson eight.
Junior Jace Potter rounded out Valley’s scoring with four points.
To go with Coad’s 19 points, Knox, now 3-0 on the season, got eight points from senior Kevin Lovins and four points each from senior Jared Prater and sophomores Cade Short and Zac Rose.
Sophomore Gunner Wagner rounded out the Redskins’ offensive output with a pair of free throws.
Valley won the JV?game 57-42.
Rex Kirchenstien led the Vikings with 20 points, while DJ Estep added 11 and Braden Shepherd and Ross O’Connor chipped in with seven points each.
Valley will be in action again Tuesday when it hosts Oregon-Davis.
KNOX 41, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 38
K 9 11 12 9 – 41
TV 8 11 3 16 – 38
Knox – Kevin Lovins 3-8 0-1 8, Cade Short 2-4 0-2 4, Jared Prater 2-7 0-2 4, Eian Coad 6-16 4-4 19, Zac Rose 2-3 0-0 4, Gunner Wagner 0-1 2-6 2, Ryan Walters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-39 6-15 41.
