Brutal 4th Quarter Hurts Valley In Non-Conference Loss
Brutal 4th Quarter Hurts Valley In Non-Conference Loss
Posted
Mark Howe-mhowe@timesuniononline.com
Brutal 4th Quarter Hurts Valley In Non-Conference LossAKRON – For three quarters Tippecanoe Valley’s boys basketball team played as well as it had all season. But a brutal fourth quarter saw the Vikings score just two points, none in the last six minutes, and drop a 56-51 non-conference contest to visiting John Glenn Thursday night.
Glenn scored the last 12 points of the game after Valley took its largest lead of the night at 51-44 with 6:05 to play.
While it was still a one-possession game, Valley coach Chad Patrick had his team hold the ball with the intent of looking for the perfect opportunity to attack the Falcon defense. The strategy just didn’t work quite the way the coach had in mind.
“In the last quarter we started playing not to lose, instead of attacking,” Patrick said. “I told the kids ‘We’re down two with four minutes to go. If anyone had told us this before the game we’d have been happy. So why worry? Just go and play the game.’
“I chose to hold the ball so when they came out to get us, we’d move the ball to the middle and attack. We just didn’t get the ball to the middle; we just held it. But those are things that as a young team we’ll look at on tape and go over it.”
The Falcons pressured the Vikings all night, and were called for 12 fouls in the first half. Glenn was whistled for just five fouls after halftime and shot 21 free throws while Valley never made it to the charity stripe after halftime.
“I don’t understand that one either,” said Patrick. “Someone will need to explain to me how a high school team can press all night and yet never send the other team to the free throw line.”
Other than a three-minute stretch in the second quarter when Glenn went on a 7-0 run, Patrick said his team played good, solid basketball.
“Our kids came out and played very hard, and we finally got off to a good start, we knocked down some shots and played with a lot of confidence,” he said. “We also played a lot smarter tonight, instead of just running crazy and losing guys. We held a great player in (Zac) Mago and held him to single digits. We lost (Mike Machnic, 20 points) a couple of times, and he hurt us.
“But with the size we were up against, I was very proud of how hard the kids played and how well we played.”
Valley built its second-half lead on the strength of four treys in the third quarter; three by Tanner Trippiedi and the other by Wes Melanson. The duo accounted for 16 of the Vikings’ 18 points in the period.
Parkur Dalrymple had 11 of his team-high 16 points in the second quarter. Melanson finished with 12 points and Trippiedi with 10.
Valley held Glenn to 34 percent shooting from the field, including 3-of-17 from behind the arc. The Falcons won the battle of the boards by 10 rebounds, and made seven more free throws than Valley attempted.
“But overall, I’m really proud of the effort and how well we played, even though we lost,” Patrick said. “If we’d played like that all season, we’d be 6-3 or 7-2 rather than 2-7.”
In the junior varsity game, Valley’s Jaydin Conley scored 14 points and Quentin Aldridge added 11 in the 41-39 Viking win. Jalen Potter added eight points in the winning effort.
Notes – Alex Morrison did not play in Thursday’s game. Patrick said the junior center isn’t injured, and it was his decison to hold him out.
The 49 points Valley scored in the first three quarters exceeded the Viking production in five of their first seven games.
Up next – The Vikings resume Three Rivers Conference play at Northfield Jan. 5.
