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BOURBON -ÊTippecanoe Valley's boys basketball team lost to Triton 68-61 in overtime Saturday, and as far as Valley coach Bill Patrick was concerned, the downfall could be traced back to the junior varsity game.
"In the junior varsity game, I saw some of our kids eating nachos," Patrick said. "We were not ready from the start of the game."
Valley dropped to 12-6, while Triton improved to 9-8. Valley's Josh Cumberland hit 6 of 7 field goals and 12 of 13 free throws to lead all scorers with 24 points. Austin Unterbrink led Triton with 15 points, and Matt Savill added 13. Jarvis Shepherd scored 15 for Valley.
For the second night in a row, Triton pulled out a win in a close game. Triton hosted and beat Whitko 45-44 Friday.
"I'm pleased with the win against a good, good coach," Triton first-year coach Joe Bennett said. "We got a lot of contributions from a lot of different people."
Namely point guard Unterbrink. Unterbrink, who through the first three quarters had two points, scored eight in the fourth quarter and five in overtime. He went to the free-throw line no times in the first three quarters; Valley sent him to the line 13 times in the fourth quarter and overtime, and he hit nine.
While Valley sent the game into overtime, one problem the Vikings had throughout the evening was stopping Triton's dribble penetration. The Trojans hit 17 of their 23 field goals in the paint.
"We struggled all night defensively," Patrick said. "We let them dribble penetrate too much."
The Vikings trailed 9-8 after one quarter, 28-24 at halftime and 39-35 after the third quarter. They warmed up in the fourth quarter, hitting 8 of 11 field goals to outscore Triton 23-19 to send the game into a 58-58 tie at the end of regulation.
"We never played hard until the last quarter," Patrick said. "We played hard then."
The Vikings even went ahead 53-48 in the fourth quarter, but then a call one official seemed to disrupt them. After a timeout, Valley inbounded the ball. Brandon Eaton had the ball for two to three seconds tops, but the referee whistled him for a five-second violation.
Triton outscored Valley 10-5 in the final three minutes to put the game into overtime. The Trojans rode their momentum into the overtime as Savill opened it with a three-pointer to put Triton up 61-58. Triton outscored Valley 10-3 in the overtime.
"In overtime we gave up that three and got in a hole," Patrick said. "In overtime we did absolutely nothing."
And when the Vikings had their chances to get out of the hole, they chose not to. Trailing 62-59 with 49 seconds left, Valley's Noah Silveus lost the ball off his leg for a turnover. Four seconds later, Unterbrink, who scored five of Triton's final seven points, hit two free throws to up the lead to 64-59.
"We lost a tough (one-point) game to Glenn," Bennett said. "We weren't able to execute down the stretch. These two games this weekend, we were able to do that."
Two Valley starters, Brandon Eaton and Craig Kuhn, combined for 31 points in Valley's 79-69 overtime win the night before against Bremen. Eaton, who is averaging 16 points per game, had five on 2-of-14 shooting, while Kuhn scored none.
All in all, it was a game Patrick would just as soon forget. The Viking fans must have considered it an important game; so many of them showed up and were left standing that Triton had to roll out its bleachers above the railing.
"This was a big game for Triton," Patrick said. "Our kids, I don't know what it was for them. We're not in the point of the season where I want to get on the guys, but I did in the locker room a little while ago."
