Vikings hold off Wawasee 47-42 in Class 3A Sectional
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
NAPPANEE – At times during Tuesday’s sectional game, the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings and Wawasee Warriors were as cold offensively as the temperatures outside. Survive and advance is the name of the game in tournament play, however, and the Vikings did enough to do exactly that. Just four days after beating Wawasee by 18 points in the regular-season finale in Syracuse, the Vikings escaped The Pit at NorthWood High School with a 47-42 win in Class 3A Sectional 21 action. Valley was 14 of 43 from the field overall and 4 of 15 from three-point range, but made 15 of 18 free throw attempts in the often-times nail-biting win. The Warriors, who saw their season end with a 10-game losing streak and a 2-21 record, were 16 of 42 from the field, 5 of 14 from the arc, and 5 of 8 at the charity stripe. Both teams committed 14 turnovers. Tuesday’s game was the eighth time the two teams have met in the past four seasons, with Valley owning a 7-1 record in that span. Valley beat Wawasee 63-49 in last year’s regular-season finale, only to lose 50-39 to the Warriors in the sectional. At times Tuesday night, it looked like history had a chance to repeat itself. “It’s tough to play a team (back-to-back) like that, you’re probably almost better off to get beat in the game before you come in here,” said Patrick, whose team improved to 11-12 this season and extended its win streak to five games. “We jumped out to a lead, and Wawasee played hard. I thought they played well. They’re a better ball club than just two wins.” The Vikings led 7-0 early, but Wawasee closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run to take a one-point lead into the second stanza. Valley led 21-13 at halftime, but the Warriors used a 13-0 run to take a 26-24 advantage. After scoring just three points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter, the Vikings scored six in the final minute and took a 30-27 advantage into the final frame. With 20 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Vikings clung to a 44-42 lead. Senior Brandon Webster pushed the advantage to three by making the first of two free throws. Wawasee rebounded Webster’s miss on the second attempt, but the Warriors turned the ball over, and Valley scored two more points to account for the final score. Despite the loss, Wawasee coach Steve Wiktorowski was pleased with his kids’ effort. “I was very happy with the turnaround, No. 1, from Friday night,” he said. “I thought we came out and believed more. And No. 2, this was a much more consistent effort from us. That’s what we struggled with all season. That’s a good way to finish the year off. If you’re gonna lose, at least we were competitive for four quarters.” Junior Tyler Smith led Wawasee with 14 points, while senior Jayce Boatwright chipped in with 10 points and six boards. Junior Alec Craig paced Valley with 17 points, while junior Jarod Duzenbery and senior Neil Clampitt finished with 10 and nine points, respectively. The Vikings won the battle on the boards 34-23. Duzenbery pulled down nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Tuesday’s game was Patrick’s 400th contest with the Vikings. The Hall of Fame coach is 277-123 in his 18th season with Valley, and is now 755-303 in his 47th season overall. The Vikings advanced to Friday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal game against Fairfield (13-9). Top-ranked NorthWood (21-2) will play Lakeland (7-15) in the first semifinal game. NorthWood opened its quest for a state title Tuesday with a 79-38 win over West Noble. Valley lost 49-35 to Fairfield in a tournament on Dec. 29, but Patrick believes his team, which has won six of its last seven games, is a much better squad than it was then. “We’re much better than we were then,” said Patrick. “We scored six points in the first half of that game, it was 20-6. We didn’t shoot the ball well, and we just didn’t play well. Fairfield, they’re a good ball club. They’ve been kind of up and down, but they beat Northridge by 14. But yeah, I think we’re much better than when we were when we played them before. We’re more consistent.”
