The Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball team trailed by 18 points in the first half, only to rip off a 19-0 run in the second half en route to a 76-57 Three Rivers Conference win over Northfield Friday night.
“That momentum, you could feel it start to switch before halftime,” said Valley coach Chad Patrick. “We talked about it at halftime to give everything you got as long as you can.”
Valley trailed 32-15 with 2:26 left in the second half when Patrick called timeout to calm down his very frustrated players.
Northfield hit a free throw after the timeout to push its advantage to 33-15, Valley’s largest deficit of the night.
“They were mad and looking at each other and saying, ‘What are we doing? What’s going wrong?’” Patrick said. “And I just tried to stay positive, and calmed them down and got them to laugh a little bit and just got them to relax again.”
Valley turned up its defensive pressure and tempo of play to finish the half on a 14-3 run.
“Our trap hurt (Northfield) a couple times, and we got back in the game there and we made some very good adjustments at halftime,” Patrick said.
Early in the third quarter, the Vikings trailed 40-31.
That’s when they got serious.
Tanner Trippiedi sank a basket, followed by back-to-back three-pointers by Cameron Parker and Parkur Dalrymple.
Parker hit two free throws for Valley’s first lead of the game with 3:03 left in the quarter.
Trippiedi and Parker scored on putbacks, while Dalrymple turned a steal into a layup that put Valley up by seven.
Even a Northfield timeout couldn’t slow down the Vikings, as a Dalrymple trey capped a 19-0 run.
Suddenly, the Vikings led 50-40.
The Norsemen cut the lead to five, but they got no closer than that.
Valley stretched its lead to double digits early in the fourth quarter and was able to get its JV players some floor time late in the game.
The Vikings had a balanced scoring effort, with five players in double figures.
“We had nine guys that could play tonight, and the five guys that I kind of went with got on a roll,” Patrick said.
Dalrymple scored a game-high 19 points, while Jalen Shepherd scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
“That’s the first game (Shepherd) has done what we knew he’s capable of,” Patrick said.
Parker scored 12 points, while Trippiedi had 11 and Wes Melanson added 10.
The Vikings also registered a collective season-high 15 assists.
Clayton Tomlinson led Northfield (1-8, 0-3 TRC) with 18 points.
Norsemen coach?Rick Brewer chalked up the blown lead to inexperience.
“They guys haven’t been in that position very often in their careers,” Brewer said. “We’re trying to build a program here, and they’re not real sure how to respond. They actually play better when they’re behind, typically, than they do when they’re ahead.”
The Vikings (6-5, 3-0 TRC) have now won more games than they did all of last season.
