NAPPANEE - This time around, Tippecanoe Valley took Jay County's best shot and survived.
The Vikings, who fell to Jay County in the regional last year, moved past the Patriots in the first game of the NorthWood Regional to earn an elite eight spot in Class 3A with a 49-46 win.Valley nearly blew a nine-point lead in the final minute and a half before hanging on for the win.
The Vikings built their lead to 44-35 before Jay County's Rhett Retter hit a three. Billy Wellman hit a three after Valley's Kevin Kindig hit a free throw.
After a Chad Hoffer turnover, Scott Bruggeman hit a jumper to draw Jay County to within one at 45-44.
The Patriots then took the lead with 27.3 seconds left in regulation as Bruggeman hit two free throws to give Jay County a 46-45 lead.
Kindig grabbed the lead right back for Valley with two free throws of his own with 15.1 seconds left.
Jay County then turned the ball over on an errant pass to Corey Comer that went into the arms of Valley's Ryan Scherzer.
Scherzer left the door open as he hit just one of his two free throws with 6.2 seconds left.
The Patriots once again failed to get a shot off as Hoffer came up with a steal. Hoffer then hit one free throw to make Valley's lead 49-46 with 2.1 seconds left and Jay County's last-second attempt was for not as the Vikings advanced to the championship.
"They play smart and they play hard," said Patrick of Jay County. "They have good quickness and did a nice job on (Chad) Hoffer.
Patrick was also complimentary of Kindig.
Kindig led all Vikings scorers with 21 points.
"He's the most underrated player in the state of Indiana," said Patrick of Kindig.
Bruggeman led the way for Jay County with 12 points while Comer added nine.
The win was the 19th on the season for Valley and the 642nd in the career of Patrick.
NorthWood advanced in controversial fashion with a 70-63 overtime win over Fort Wayne Bishop Luers.
The talk going into the game was of Luers freshman DeShaun Thomas.
Thomas did finish with a game-high 33 points but was held to just two points over the final five minutes of regulation and all of overtime.
The officiating was questioned by the large crowd the majority of the game but two calls left many Luers fans scratching their heads.
Late in the game, Knights coach James Blackmon was issued a timeout but quickly herded his players back onto the floor stating he never signaled for a timeout.
Then late in overtime after a Luers foul, Blackmon appeared to be signaling for a timeout as one official was at the scorer's table.
Blackmon was quickly given a technical foul.
NorthWood hit its free throws down the stretch and played a tough, gritty basketball game to escape with the win.
The Panthers' Nate Brown, not known for his scoring, scored 15 for NorthWood and did a good job on Thomas.
Thomas, full of emotion and perhaps acting like a freshmen, tried leaving the Panther Pit without going through the customary handshake line before being guided back by a Luers official.
