Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON -ÊBill Patrick did not invent the wheel, but his Valley Vikings looked like they could have Thursday night in a 74-38 win over Argos.
After two quick baskets and a free throw by Cody New to start the first quarter, Valley settled down and started to run its wheel offense. And Argos was scratching its head in the process.
"Our first three shots were quick shots," said Patrick. "We struggled, but once we settled down we did much better."
But Argos' three-point shooting had the Vikings scratching their heads as well. All 12 of Argos' first-quarter points came from three-points field goals. Bill Robertson had two, while Brian Zentz and Tony Patterson added one each.
By the end of the first quarter Valley held a 17-12 lead, but the Vikings had hit seven baskets to Argos' four.
The Dragons chipped away at Valley's lead in the second quarter until the 6:01 mark when Robertson hit his first two-point basket of the night to put Argos within three, 19-16.
However, that was as close as Argos got as Valley turned on the juice. Behind eight points by New, the Vikings outscored Argos 18-10 in the quarter and took a 35-22 lead at the half.
"They shot a lot of threes in the first half," said Patrick. "They hit a good percentage, too. At halftime we made a couple of adjustments to shut off Robertson."
Then Valley used the wheel to roll over the Dragons in the third stanza. In the first four minutes of play, Andy Martin hit three baskets and New hit one to give Valley a 43-22 advantage. The Vikings held the Argos squad scoreless until the 3:45 mark when Dustin O'Dell hit a basket for the first Dragon points of the second half.
Valley continued the defensive attack, and by the end of the quarter had allowed Argos to score just five points. During the third quarter, the Vikings were a perfect 8-of-8 shooting and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe to extend their lead to 27, 54-27.
"Defensively, we switched to a man-to-man in the second half," said Patrick. "We did a better job containing them and keeping them from shooting the threes.
"We moved the pressure outside because they weren't going inside to shoot."
Much like the third quarter, Valley held Argos scoreless for the first four minutes while scoring 12 points. The Viking reserves outscored the Dragons 20-11 in the fourth frame to earn the 74-38 win.
In all, Valley hit 27 of 42 field goals (65.8 percent), while Argos hit 12 of 42 field goals (28.5 percent). The Vikings also hit 2 of 4 baskets (50.0 percent) from three-point range while Argos hit 7 of 16 (43.8 percent) from behind the arc.
Along with controlling the pace of the game by running the wheel, the Vikings used their height advantage to outrebound Argos 32-10.
"This is probably the first game all year where we have held the size advantage," said Patrick.
Valley improves to 7-2 and will host Three Rivers Conference opponent Northfield Saturday. Argos falls to 4-4.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 74
ARGOS 38
Argos 12 10 5 11 - 38
Valley 17 18 19 20 - 74
Argos FG FT R S Pts.
Robertson (G) 5-14 0-0 1 2 13
Patterson (G) 2-11 0-0 3 3 6
Thomas (F) 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Zentz (G) 1-1 0-0 3 0 3
O'Dell (F) 2-12 0-0 1 2 5
Robinson 2-3 2-2 0 0 6
Davis 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Shafer 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
P. Haste 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
A. Haste 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Bailey 0-2 3-4 0 0 3
Rogers 0-0 2-2 0 1 2
Totals 12-42 7-8 10 9 38
Valley FG FT R S Pts.
Shafer (G) 2-5 0-0 1 1 6
Martin (F) 4-7 2-2 4 2 10
Domenico (G) 2-3 3-4 2 2 7
New (G) 9-11 4-5 11 3 22
Eaton (C) 5-7 6-7 10 2 16
Stutzman 2-4 0-1 2 0 4
Harmon 1-1 0-2 1 2 2
Hartzler 1-2 0-0 0 0 2
Wise 1-1 3-3 1 0 5
Sterk 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Vanlaningham 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 27-42 15-24 32 13 74
Three-point goals -ÊArgos 7-16 (Robertson 3-7, Patterson 2-3, Zentz 1-1, O'Dell 1-4, Bailey 0-1) Valley 2-4 (Shafer 2-3, New 0-1). Fouls -ÊArgos 20, Valley 15. Fouled out -Ênone. Turnovers -ÊArgos 21, Valley 12.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 50, ARGOS 25
T. Valley (6-3) -ÊDavid Beyers 12, Kyle Bruner 8, Eric Carnes 8, Derek Sausaman 6, Josh Murphy 4, Chuck Sterk 4, Kory Fields 3, Blaine Hartzler 2, Scott Kindig 2, Andrew Kramer 1
Argos -ÊRandy Dunham 8, Ryan Rogers 4, Kenny Stevens 4, Paul Haste 4, Matt Davis 3, Scott Craft 2
