AKRON — The Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team applied some lessons it learned in Saturday’s 10-point loss at Rochester. Hosting West Noble (11-6) Wednesday night, the Lady Vikings (8-6) won 55-39, focusing on rebounding and getting the ball inside to 6-foot freshman center Anne Secrest. Against Rochester, Valley was outrebounded 39-24 and Secrest only attempted four shots, finishing with a season-low four points. Focusing on those two things, Valley outrebounded West Noble 39-32 and Secrest got 11 shot attempts, making six in a 14-point effort. “The fact is, we didn’t work hard enough to get her the ball in there (Saturday),” Valley coach Chris Kindig said about getting Secrest the ball. “Tonight, we talked about making a conscious effort of getting her the ball and get her at least 10 or 12 touches. When she does that, she’s going to give you double-figure points.” She also finished the game with 10 rebounds, but she didn’t lead the team in that category, as 5-foot-11 senior Kelsey Ball did with 12. “She’s one that I kind of got on her case after Saturday night, because we gave up 18 or 19 offensive rebounds,” Kindig said. “You’re not going to win any games giving up 19 offensive rebounds. We did a much better job on the boards tonight. That was an area of emphasis tonight” The bigs were doing work in the paint, but it was 5-foot-5 junior guard Cara Hoffman that led the team in scoring, converting 8 of 16 field goal attempts for 20 points, seven above her season average. “Particularly in the last four of five games, she’s really picked it up offensively for us, with Rochester being the exception (Saturday night when she scored five),” Kindig said. “She’s doing a lot better in terms of her decision making. Early in the year, she’d be over-penetrating and then kind of throwing up some crazy shot. She’s been a little bit more under control and understanding you can pass first instead of taking the shot.” Facing a potential Class 3A Sectional 21 opponent, a solid effort from each Lady Viking was important, as the West Noble Lady Chargers entered the game averaging 53 points per game. “That was a quality team we played tonight,” Kindig said. To knock off the ‘quality team’, Valley cut off its head, as West Noble senior guard Kelsie Peterson entered the game averaging 21 points per game, but was held to four on 2-of-9 shooting, as sophomore Karis Tucker hounded her all night. “Defensively, it was a key for us to hold Kelsie Peterson (to four points),” Kindig said. “She’s a great player. Karis did a really nice job on her, but she got a lot of help too.” Despite limiting Peterson, West Noble still found a way to cut a 12-point second-half Valley lead to 40-36 following a three-pointer by sophomore Paige Shearer, her fourth of the game, with 6:36 remaining. But just as the Lady Chargers crept back into it, Valley went on a 10-0 run, with four different Lady Vikings scoring four field goals, to run the lead back to 50-36 with 4:09 left to play. “We actually got a couple rebounds and got out for a couple layups,” Kindig said of the scoring spurt.” Peterson did net a bucket to cut the Valley lead to 50-38 with 3:20 left to play, but Valley then went out of its normal routine and ran 1:40 off the clock until junior Caylie Teel was fouled and sent to the free-throw line with 1:40 left in the game. “I was a little nervous about running the delay game with three minutes to go, but the girls did a nice job of handling the ball,” Kindig. They did do a nice job of handling the ball, but the free throw shooting wasn’t great, as the Lady Vikings were 2 of 6 down the stretch, though it didn’t really matter in the 16-point victory. Valley will look to take the momentum from its first win of 2014 into Saturday’s Three Rivers Conference contest at home against Southwood.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 55, WEST NOBLE 39 WN 11 7 15 6 – 39 TV 12 14 12 17 – 55 Valley – Karis Tucker 1-3 0-0 2, Cara Hoffman 8-16 2-5 20, Caylie Teel 2-9 0-1 4, Kelsey Ball 3-6 0-0 6, Anne Secrest 6-11 2-5 14, Taylor Trippiedi 1-2 0-0 3, Meredith Brouyette 2-6 0-0 6. Totals 23-53 4-11 55. WN – Kelsie Peterson 2-9 0-0 4, Shawna Young 1-5 0-0 2, Kenzie Cox 1-4 0-0 2, Paige Shearer 6-15 0-0 16, Taylor Fisher 1-1 0-0 2, Lexi Shepherd 1-3 1-2 3, Becca Schermerhorn 4-12 1-3 10, Kaylie Warble 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-49 2-5 39. Three-point goals – Valley 5 (Hoffman 2, Brouyette 2, Trippiedi), WN 5 (Shearer 4, Schermerhorn); Team Fouls (fouled out) – Valley 12, WN 15 (Shearer); Turnovers – Valley 17, WN 19; Rebounds – Valley 39 (Ball 12), WN 32 (Cox 9); Assists – Valley 15 (Teel 5), WN 6 (Young 2, Schermerhorn 2); Steals – Valley 10 (Teel 4), WN 9 (Cox 4); Blocks – Valley 1, WN 1. Records: Valley 8-6, WN 11-6. JV – Valley 29, WN 24. Valley – Morgan Brazo 9, Casey Dunn 8, Brynda Krueger 6, Hannah Dunn 6
