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AKRON - After opening the season on the wrong end of a blowout against defending state champions Norwell, the Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team returned to Akron on Thursday night to try and get back on track in the team’s home opener. They were able to do so and then some, ending up on the other side of a lopsided contest in a 59-6 win over Northwestern.
“I think on Tuesday night we got a good lesson in what we want to be as a program at some point,” Valley head coach Rebekah Parker said. “Even though it didn’t go our way I thought it was good for some of our younger players to see that level of success. It was nice to turn around 48 hours later and give it back to Northwestern.”
The Lady Vikings enjoyed an incredibly efficient start to the game, scoring eleven points in the first two minutes of the game to quickly go up by double digits. Hadley Wise did most of the damage, scoring five of the first eleven, but she was joined by three of her teammates during this early spurt as well.
It was the Valley defense that was the driving force behind this early avalanche. Taking advantage of the inexperience of the Northwestern roster, the Lady Vikings were able to force a turnover on what felt like every possession. To the credit of the visitors, they did a good job getting back on defense and preventing the home team from making things even uglier.
Gaby Gonzalez was another big first-quarter contributor, scoring six points while doing a nice job facilitating her team’s offense. After being held to just 17 points by Norwell in the team’s opener earlier this week, the Lady Vikings had already scored 17 in the first six minutes of this one.
As the second quarter got going, Valley held a commanding 21-2 lead. While the Lady Tigers were still struggling to score, the Lady Vikings missed out on a series of opportunities that could have really put things away for good. After only scoring five points over the first four minutes of the second, another quick burst led to four fast points and now the home side was flirting with a 30-point lead.
By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Northwestern was still stuck on just two points, while Valley had opened up its lead to 33. Just one basket to start the third quarter would be enough to initiate the running clock.
Senior Betty Shepherd of Valley finds an opening to the basket during the first quarter...Nieter
After the Lady Tigers opened up the second half with a bucket, four straight points by Gonzalez extended the lead to 35. It also allowed the point guard to join Wise in double figures. When she wasn’t scoring, Gonzalez was getting everybody involved. To go with those four points, she added three more assists to her total in the first four minutes of the third.
“I was really hard on her after the Norwell game. We go as she goes and we need her to be at her best,” Parker said. I thought her response was a very mature one, getting back on track tonight and having an impact in pretty much every facet of the game.”
Valley’s offense was firing on all cylinders coming out of halftime, and the lead soon ballooned over 40. By the time the expedited quarter came to an end, the game had already been decided for quite some time, and the only matter left to settle was the final score.
With the game being as lopsided as it was, it gave Parker the opportunity to empty her bench in the fourth. The second stringers had no difficulty getting themselves onto the scoreboard as well, growing the lead to 55 with less than three minutes to go in the game. That was the largest it would get.
Wise led all scorers with 21. Gonzalez had 14, six assists and nine steals.
Tippecanoe Valley (1-1) will head back on the road to take on Culver Academies on Tuesday.
