Valley's Strong Start Finishes TritonBOURBON – Tippecanoe Valley coach Chad Patrick issued his boys basketball team an ultimatum: play well, or run.
The Vikings chose the former Friday, and won 42-29 at Triton.
The win follows Valley’s loss to NorthWood Wednesday in a game that Patrick said his players lacked effort.
“(I told them), if we don’t show up (Friday), we’re gonna run for both games,” Patrick said. “If we show up (Friday) and play hard and do everything that we talk about, I might forget about the other night.”
Valley responded with an intense man-to-man defense and an uptempo style of play that resulted in 15 first-half turnovers for the Trojans.
Meanwhile, the Vikings picked their spots and hit their shots to start the game on a 20-2 run.
“We came out, and boy, we put the clamps on,” Patrick said.
Triton coach Jason Groves, on the other hand, was anything but pleased.
“When you’re throwing the ball to them and they’re getting 19 points off of turnovers, they don’t have to do much, and that’s why I was upset,” he said.
Triton turnovers were part of Valley’s gameplan, as devised by Valley assistant Bill Patrick.
“(We) let them make turnovers,” Chad Patrick said. “Not force them into them.”
Meanwhile, Triton struggled to shoot. The Trojans didn’t hit their first field goal until more than 11 minutes ran off the clock, when Lucas Richman made a layup.
“We got open shots, you gotta be able to knock them down,” Groves said.
The Vikings carried a 30-12 lead into halftime.
Triton came out and slowed down the tempo in the second half, outscoring Valley 12-6 in the third quarter.
“(I told them) ‘you fought back, you didn’t give up, but we need to do this for four quarters,’” Groves said.
The Vikings never gave up their double-digit lead as they rolled to victory in the fourth quarter.
Parkur Dalrymple scored a game-high 12 points for Valley (12-9), while Wes Melanson added seven points.
Ashton Oviedo and Keegan Westafer scored six points each for the Trojans (7-11).
The Vikings have won five of their last six games. They will close their regular season schedule by hosting Wawasee Friday.
