The Tippecanoe Valley trio of Tanner Andrews, Jacob Ritchey and Nick Kindig lift the sectional championship trophy high at Wawasee Saturday night (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)
SYRACUSE – It’s about time.
For the first time in six years, Tippecanoe Valley has been crowned sectional champion. The Vikings faced some adversity on Saturday night, but kept calm and pulled out a 60-51 victory over NorthWood in the IHSAA Class 3-A Sectional 21 Championship at Wawasee High School.
The night started bleak for the Vikings. NorthWood came out swinging with a 13-2 run to open the game. The Panthers could just not miss a shot. With momentum clearly favoring NorthWood, Valley had to make a move if it wanted to stay in the game. After a timeout, the Vikings were able to string together a 10-0 run that carried over into the second quarter. With the score at 13-12, it was all about which team could keep momentum on its side.
Enter Viking sophomore Chainey Zolman.
NorthWood had the lead with just over a minute to play in the first half when Zolman buried a three-point shot from the wing to make the score 22-21, advantage NorthWood. The Panthers would fail to get any points on their ensuing possession, leaving Valley with a chance to take its first lead of the game. In what seemed to be an identical play, Zolman ended up wide open on the wing for the second straight possession. The sophomore sank another three-point shot to beat the buzzer and give the Vikings a 24-22 advantage at the break. The Vikings would not trail for the remainder of the game. Zolman finished his night with 18 points, going 4-4 from beyond the arc.
Valley head coach Bill Patrick talked about Zolman’s stellar performance, “He’s capable. We told him earlier in order for us to win, he needed to have 10 points. He is our second best shooter. We’ve been waiting all year long for him to come around. He finally showed up.”
Zolman’s efforts were probably most appreciated by Valley senior Nick Kindig.
“We were telling him that we needed a good game out of him because we needed a third scorer to step up besides me and Tanner (Andrews). I told him that he needed to have one of his better games and he ends up having his best game,” Kindig stated.
Senior guard Nick Kindig of Tippecanoe Valley works his way past Jonathan Wilkinson of NorthWood. Kindig led the Vikings to the sectional title.
Zolman clearly did not disappoint his senior captain and Kindig, in turn, did not disappoint the rest of his team. Kindig led his team with 20 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
Valley did not let NorthWood get back into the game after taking the lead before half. While the Panthers never got down by more than 10 points, the energy from NorthWood just never seemed to reach the level that Valley was on. The passion and confidence was clearly visible on the faces of the Viking players for the entire second half. While nothing is ever a guarantee in sports, there was a point in the second half where it just became clear that the Vikings were not going to let themselves lose the game.
Helping to secure that win was Tanner Andrews. The junior big man has been essential to the team’s success all season and he showed up in grand fashion again on Saturday night, even tough he didn’t feel too well Saturday morning.
Andrews spent most of the day trying to recover from flu-like symptoms. Chicago Bulls fans already know where this is going. Patrick told his junior forward that Michael Jordan played arguably the best game of his career when he had the flu. Referring, of course, to Jordan’s game five performance in the 1997 Finals.
While this was not quite the NBA Finals, and Andrews did not really put up Jordan’s numbers, the junior was solid for the Vikings all night. Andrews led all players with nine rebounds, two blocks, and nine assists while also scoring 12 points.
NorthWood’s Jonathan Wilkinson led all scorers with 21 points. Outside of his performance, the Valley defense did its job in locking down the the Panthers potent offense, holding NorthWood to just 40 percent shooting from the floor.
Alex Thacker is fired up during Valley’s 60-51 win over NorthWood at Wawasee Saturday night.
The scoreboard and stat sheet showed it and NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe could not deny it, “We were outplayed tonight. Tippy Valley is a very good team and there’s a reason why they’ve won 20 games now. I wish we would’ve played better.”
NorthWood finishes the season at 16-7, while Valley improves to 20-3.
As for Patrick, he was happy for his seniors to have a sectional title.
“This is what you work for all year. Nick and Jacob (Ritchey) are seniors and they haven’t won one yet. We told the kids early in the year we did not want them to be the second group to graduate without winning a sectional. Last year’s group graduated without ever winning one. We did not want to see that happen again,” Patrick stated.
The seniors will look to keep their final season alive as Valley will now move on to the Blackford Regional. The Vikings will play the Norwell Knights at noon at Blackford High School in Hartford City.
Tippecanoe Valley won the Class 3-A Wawasee Sectional title Saturday night with a 60-51 win over NorthWood. The Vikings advance to the Blackford Regional next Saturday to face Norwell.