SOUTH WHITLEY – On the opening night of the Three Rivers Conference slate, the Whitko Wildcats were hoping to turn things around after a 1-4 start. Despite a 21-point performance from Whitko senior guard Dylan Cumberland, the visiting Tippecanoe Valley Vikings played spoiler in a 59-40 victory Friday night in South Whitley. Each team had slow starts in the first quarter, with the Vikings holding a 10-6 lead early. Whitko coach Scott Wessel wanted to build off of that and rally or at least stay with the Vikings. “The first quarter was our pace. We can’t play much faster,” Wessel said. “In the second quarter [this year] when other teams lead, it’s hard for us to come back. We just struggled to score. When they have leads and we can’t make stops and we can’t make shots, it’s hard for us.” Hall of Fame coach Bill Patrick was not too impressed with his Vikings early on, as they had some miscues before turning things around. “Early in the first quarter, we turned the ball over a few times. I thought we struggled a bit offensively, and we didn’t do a good job of rebounding in the first half,” Patrick said. “Second half, we did much better.” It wasn’t that bad of a performance by the Vikings considering last week’s snow storm pushed dates with Peru and John Glenn into 2014, leaving a 10-day gap between Friday night and their Dec. 10th loss to Culver Academies. The Vikings’ offense was well-balanced with four scorers in double digits. For Valley, Tanner Andrews, who recently received First Team All-State honors in football for his efforts in the fall, scored 19 points in the win. Ben Shriver, receiving honorable mention All-State honors in football, and Logan Britton added 12 points each. Chainey Zolman finished with 11 points. Patrick felt it was the inside and low-post presence of Andrews and Britton that doomed the Wildcats. “I thought we did a pretty good job of getting the ball to those guys,” Patrick said. “Obviously, Whitko struggled to guard those two guys inside.” The Wildcats got a huge boost from Cumberland midway through the third quarter, scoring seven straight points, including a four-point play that was able to cut the Vikings’ lead to eight. Valley, however, had other things in mind and was able to open up its offense and get long-range shots to fall. “It doesn’t make a difference what the score is, whether it’s one or 15 points, they just continue to play the same way and they’ll compete until the end,” Patrick said of Whitko. “They’re going to win some basketball games because they play so hard.” After having already waited 10 days, the Vikings will not play another game until the new year, when they participate in the Winning Edge Holiday Tournament. They will face NorthWood in Game 1 (Jan. 3rd, 6 p.m.) and play either Fairfield or Rochester the following day. “We haven’t played for ten days, and obviously that was a little bit of a problem tonight. It’s a long time to go without playing,” Patrick said. Reeling from another loss, the Wildcats will enjoy a bit of a break before they face Maconaquah in the Miami County Tournament Friday 6 p.m. at Maconaquah High School. Whitko will face either Peru or North Miami in the second round of the tournament. “We’re going to take some time off and get some rest. We’re going to come back in a couple days and get ready for the Miami County Tournament,” Wessel said.
