AKRON - Just as the calendar flipped to a new year Thursday, Tippecanoe Valley's varsity boys basketball team got off to a new start Friday.
Led by a 22-point performance from junior Anthony Tolson and an 18-point effort from classmate Zach Owens, the host Vikings scored their first win of the season by beating the Winamac Warriors 65-55 in the consolation round of the Winning Edge Holiday Tournament.
"Like one of the players said in the locker room, we're undefeated in '09," said Valley coach Bill Patrick, whose team improved to 1-6 on the season with the 10-point win. "Maybe the new year will bring better things."
It brought about a win for Valley, something the program hadn't experienced since the regular-season finale against Wawasee last year.
And according to Patrick, who scored his 659th career coaching victory, it brought relief to his players.
"I think the players were relieved," said Patrick. "It's been a long time coming."
After starting the season with losses by margins of 27, 9, 20 and 46, the Vikings lost 64-62 at Glenn on Dec. 13 and then fell 51-48 to Knox Tuesday in the opening round of the Winning Edge Tourn-ament.
Patrick said after last night's win he didn't think his team played as well against Winamac as it did against Glenn or Knox.
Part of it may have had to do with playing in the consolation game.
Either way, the Vikings are no longer winless.
"We didn't play as well as we did the last two games," said Patrick. "It's hard to get excited when you're playing in the consolation round. It shouldn't be that hard, though, when you're 0-6."
The loss dropped Winamac to 2-7 on the season. The Warriors are currently on a seven-game losing streak after opening the season with wins over Twin Lakes and North White.
A three-pointer by Tolson gave the Vikings a 14-4 lead with 2:29 remaining in the first quarter.
When the opening frame came to a close, Valley was up 20-8.
In the second quarter, however, the Warriors closed the gap by opening the second eight minutes of play with a 7-0 run and trailed just 28-25 at halftime.
"I thought we played well in the first quarter," said Patrick. "We just quit playing hard in the second quarter. We let up. In the first quarter we played hard, and then we played to the level of competition. I don't mean that as knock on Winamac, but we let up a bit."
The Vikings opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run of their own, bumping the lead back to 10 at 35-25.
Valley took a 41-32 advantage into the fourth quarter, and led 54-45 with 3:01 remaining in the game, but the Warriors wouldn't go down without a fight.
A three-pointer by Andrew Mallott cut the lead to six, and then a bucket by Ryan Abbott cut Valley's advantage to three, 58-55, with 1:10 to play.
Tolson sealed the deal for the Vikings, connecting on 7 of 8 free throw attempts in the final 52 seconds.
To go with Tolson's 22 points and Owens' 18 points, Valley got seven points from Gus Lukens, six points from Devin Vogel and four points each from Taylor Burkhart, Ross Miller and Dan Kitch.
Patrick said he was impressed with Lukens' performance.
"Gus Lukens deserves the game ball," said Patrick. "He came up with two or three big plays when we needed them. He didn't score a lot of points, but you wanna pick a kid to give credit too, he's the kid."
Abbott led Winamac with 22 points, while Mallott chipped in with 13 points and Taylor Fox finished with seven points.
The Vikings are in action again Friday when they host Three Rivers Conference foe Northfield.
