Cold Stretch Dooms Lady Vikings NAPPANEE — After Tippecanoe Valley virtually skunked NorthWood in the second quarter, the Panthers bounced right back to completely skunk the Vikings in the third.
And there wasn’t enough tomato juice in all the refrigerators in Elkhart County to overcome that — not against the No. 5-rated team in Class 3A, a red-hot one at that, chasing down its 14th straight victory.
NorthWood overwhelmed the visitors 15-0 in the third quarter and 31-4 in the second half for a 49-23 girls high school basketball win Tuesday night at The Pit.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in scoring four points in a half,” 10th-year Valley coach Chris Kindig said. “That was tough.”
The Vikings (12-5) led 19-18 at the intermission, but didn’t score their first point of the second half until just 3:50 remained in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit to 42-21.
The Panthers (18-2) had been outscored 9-2 in the second period, and those lone two points came on junior guard Kendal Miller’s 8-footer at the quarter buzzer.
“Give them credit,” Kindig said of NorthWood’s about-face. “I thought the second half, they came out with a lot more intensity and we weren’t able to match that. I don’t think our ball movement was where it needed to be in the second half, so we didn’t get a lot of great shots.”
The Vikings finished 2-of-17 from the field after the break, both field goals coming from junior Sidney Wagner, and 9-of-36 for the game with four 3-pointers.
The Panthers closed at 19-of-42, including 11-of-20 in the second half, with six 3-pointers. NorthWood played primarily zone in the first half and primarily man in the second.
“We went (more) man and had some success in it and got the ball rolling,” Panther coach Adam Yoder said, “and it kind of snowballed on them. I thought our kids did an excellent job of moving and talking and defending the way they know they can.”
Junior swing Alea Minnich led NorthWood with 14 points that included 4-of-10 shooting outside the arc and dished four assists. Miller added 13 points and three assists.
Senior center Kate Rulli collected 12 rebounds, powering the Panthers to a 33-17 advantage on the glass, to go with eight points on 4-of-5 field goal shooting. Classmate Maddy Payne scored eight points as well and mixed in three steals.
Wagner paced Valley with nine points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Senior Jillian Wells added six points on a pair of first-quarter treys.
The Vikings, who have lost three of their last four, now turn their attention back to the Three Rivers Conference race, visiting Rochester on Saturday.
The league remains open for the taking with the Zebras and Northfield tied atop it at 5-1 and Valley right behind at 4-1.
“(The NorthWood) game was one of those you’d like to play well and have a good showing,” Kindig said, “but I’ve said this before — if I have my choice about winning tonight or winning on Saturday, I’m going to take (the conference game) every time.”
The coach said if he could precisely put his finger on what went wrong Tuesday, “obviously we would fix that.
“We just can’t continue to play offensively like this and expect to beat anybody on our schedule,” Kindig said, “so I don’t know what we can do in three days, but we’re sure gonna try. … I think these girls are pretty resilient They know Saturday’s a big game, and I think they’ll be ready to play.”
Yoder, meanwhile, said he was sure his team will have to be ready for a better showing by the Vikings if the teams happen to meet again in the six-team Lakeland Sectional next month. “Extremely strong,” Yoder said of what he thinks of Valley despite Tuesday’s margin. “I thought this was a tossup game. I really did. … I think they’ll be a much different basketball team by (sectionals), as I hope we are.”
In Tuesday’s junior varsity contest, the Vikings held off the Panthers 24-21.
Rily Holloway, who scored a game-high 11 points, intercepted a NorthWood forecourt inbound with 2.5 seconds left to seal the win.
