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Saturday night’s 3A sectional championship between Tippecanoe Valley and Fairfield was the epitome of a slugfest. Long, drawn out possessions, extremely physical play, and above all else, tight defense and low field goal percentages. The battle went down to the final possession, and after trailing for the entirety of the second half, a three pointer with six seconds left in the game earned the Lady Falcons a sectional championship with a 30-28 win.
Offensively, the first quarter was a nightmare for the Lady Vikings. The hosts didn’t put their first field goal on the board until sophomore Savanna Miller drained a three with 12 seconds left in the period. It wasn’t much better for Fairfield, but the visitors were able to hit a pair of threes to gain some momentum in the opening eight minutes.
Both defenses were playing extremely well, but it was the Lady Falcons that were making the bigger difference on that end. Valley’s opponent was forcing them to take a lot of shots from beyond the arch, electing to load the paint and prevent the hosts from getting into the lane with any consistency. The Lady Vikings were able to get some good looks from outside with this strategy being employed, but just could not get a shot to fall. After a quarter, Fairfield led 8-4.
“It was one of those nights. It’s happened to us a few times this season where it just doesn’t go in,” Valley head coach Rebekah Parker said. “It’s not that we were getting bad looks, I felt like we were getting decent shots, but it just wasn’t working for us tonight.”
Three minutes into the second, that score remained the same. Around that point, Valley finally got the spark it was looking for. Miller hit her second three of the game and it was immediately followed up by a steal and score by Gaby Gonzalez to put the hosts on top for the first time. The Lady Falcons responded immediately with four straight points of their own before Gonzalez tied things up with a shot from a few feet beyond the three-point line.
Senior Betty Shepherd pump fakes to try and find some space to shoot.
The senior point guard continued to lead the way as halftime neared, as she was starting to control the game at both ends. Fellow senior Dalynne Bussard, fresh off a 17-point night in the semifinals, picked up her first field goal of the game in the final seconds of the first half. The last few minutes before the break belonged to Valley, as a perfectly-timed burst to end the second quarter put the hosts up by six.
The Lady Vikings slowed things down dramatically to begin the second half, with the team’s first possession taking nearly two minutes off the clock. It ended in a stop for Fairfield, as did the drawn out possession that followed. The Lady Falcons seemed content to let the hosts do this, as they were able to go down to the other end and hit two quick shots to tighten things up.
“We were hoping to stretch them out a little bit more and get some high-low action going in the middle of their zone,” Parker said. “The inside presence for us was not what it was last night [in the semifinals] and that really hurt us.”
It wasn’t until after the midway point of the third that Miller’s third triple of the game finally put her team on the board. That put a bit of momentum back on Valley’s side, as the green and gold turned a block into a breakaway layup for Wise to go up by seven with three minutes left in the quarter.
The hosts would only manage one more bucket before the end of the period, allowing the guests to tighten things up a bit before the fourth quarter got going. With eight minutes remaining, Valley’s lead was now four.
It remained a 25-21 game even after nearly three minutes had passed in the fourth. The Lady Vikings were still drawing out their possessions, while Fairfield was eagerly searching for the first available shot. Just before the five-minute mark, Madison Jones hit a huge triple for the visitors to make it a one-point game.
Even without any points in the quarter, the Lady Vikings showed incredibly poise. A possession that lasted over 90 seconds and was practically a game of keep away featuring Gonzalez and Wise ended in a layup for Bussard, making it a three-point game with three minutes left.
Both defenses refused to give an inch as time continued to tick away. Open shots were incredibly hard to come by, making mistakes matter even more. Valley made a crucial mistake with two minutes left, fouling Eva Herbert on a three point shot. She’d make every attempt at the line to tie things up in crunch time.
The hosts were in no rush to answer. Gonzalez spent most of the next minute holding the ball at the top of the key. With about 40 seconds left in the game, the ball made it down low to Bussard, who had her shot blocked. Betty Shepherd was there to grab the rebound, and was fouled going for the putback. Attempting the two biggest free throws of her life, she split the pair to give her team the lead.
The Lady Falcons calmly crossed halfcourt and got a good look at the wing with about 15 seconds left. It bounced off the rim, but the fight for the rebound went out of bounds and off a green jersey. With 12 seconds left, the guests would have one more crack at it.
After a series of timeouts, Fairfield drew up exactly what it was looking for. The play was a simple one, a quick pass to the corner for a three by Macy Worthman. It was executed to perfection, hitting nothing but net and giving the visitors a two-point lead with six seconds left.
“I wanted to make sure we didn’t give up an easy look inside or commit a foul, so after I looked at their first out of bounds play, we kind of packed it inside,” Parker said. “Credit to [Worthman] for hitting a tough shot.
Needing to go the full length of the court, Gonzalez got the ball and put her head down. The shot wasn’t an easy one, a floater near the three-point line. It barely grazed the rim, sealing the fate of a heartbreaking loss for the Lady Vikings.
Tippecanoe Valley (17-7) will return next season.
“I hope these underclassmen feel some sort of motivation to not have this feeling happen to them again,” Parker said. “We had some players that didn’t play tonight but we need them to know we are behind them and are looking for them to step into some big shoes.”
