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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
ELKHART — The Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team does not have a player taller than 5-9 or a player shorter than 5-6.
They might not have a ball-dominating point guard or a gargantuan post presence.
But of the eight players that played against host Jimtown Friday, seven of them have previous varsity experience from a team that won 17 games last year.
They used that versatility and experience to their advantage in a 44-31 win over the Lady Jimmies.
Valley improved to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the Indiana Northern State Conference. Jimtown dropped to 2-2, 0-1.
Savana Miller led Valley with 12 points, and Hadley Wise added 10.
Jordyn Williams and McKenzie Verhoeve had eight points each to lead Jimtown.
Valley led 23-11 at halftime and stayed ahead by double figures for the entire second half. The lead reached as high as 17 in the second half. Jimtown never led.
Brianna Curtis’ layup with 6:10 left in the third quarter cut the Valley lead to 10, but Savana Miller had a frontcourt steal and galloped to the hoop for an uncontested layup. Then she lingered in the backcourt, stepped in the passing lane and quickly dropped in another layup.
Jimtown called timeout, but Kinley Crabb fed a cutting Wise for a short banker and a foul.
Wise missed the ensuing free throw, and Verhoeve made two free throws at the other end before Miller was on the receiving end of a drive-and-kick 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 32-15.
“I told her those are game-changing moments,” Valley coach Rebekah Parker said. “She was able to come up with two back-to-back steals and buckets, and those are momentum shifts that are important in stretches of games that you’re trying to find a bucket. It was hard for us to find one at times, and she did a good job of being in the right place and turning them over and scoring right after that.”
Asked if Valley can be a team that can have a different leading scorer any night, Parker said, “We’re going to have to.”
Jimtown would crawl back within 36-25 in the fourth quarter before a Crabb half-hook in the lane, two Savana Miller free throws and an 18-footer from Chaney Miller got the lead back to 17.
Jimtown committed 20 turnovers as compared to Valley’s 10. They also did not make a 3-pointer. Still, Parker thought her team can play better defense.
Wise, Crabb score 17 each in Valley win over SB Washington
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Girls basketball
Tippecanoe Valley 79, South Bend Washington 2 (Nov. 6): Hadley Wise and Kinley Crabb scored 17 points each as Valley routed South Bend Washington in the season opener on Rita Price Simpson Court Nov. 6.
Izzy Woodruff added nine, Lillie Koch had eight, and Chaney Miller and Audrey Birge added seven each.
South Bend Washington, who has lost eight straight games dating back to last year, did not score after the first quarter.
Valley led 50-2 at halftime.
SOUTH BEND WASHINGTON (2) (0-3)
Cobb 1 0-0 2, Stalling 0 0-0 0, Jackson 0 0-0 0, Shorter 0 0-0 0, Mitchell 0 0-0 0, Drouillard 0 0-0 0, Lollis 0 0-0 0, Harris 0 0-0 0, Everett 0 0-0 0, Campbell 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 1 0-0 2
VALLEY (79) (1-0)
Hadley Wise 8 0-0 17, Savana Miller 1 4-6 6, Izzy Woodruff 3 3-6 9, Kinley Crabb 6 0-1 17, Maycee Koch 3 0-0 6, Lillie Koch 3 2-4 8, Chaney Miller 2 3-6 7, Audrey Birge 2 3-3 7, Hailey Craft 1 0-0 2, Ceara Richmond 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 30 15-26 79
Three-point field goals:
South Bend Washington 0,
Valley 4 (Crabb 3, Wise)
Total fouls: South Bend Washington 17, Valley 5
Score by quarters
SB Washington 2 0 0 0 – 2
Valley 25 25 14 15 – 79
Wise scores 13, but 3rd quarter dooms Valley in loss to CGA
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Girls basketball
Culver Academy 48, Tippecanoe Valley 37 (Tuesday): Hadley Wise hit all six of her free throws and scored 13 points, but Valley lost to visiting Culver Academy on Rita Price Simpson Court Tuesday.
Kinley Crabb added eight points, and Savana Miller had six for Valley (1-1).
Valley did not have a field goal in the third quarter as Culver Academy stretched a three-point halftime lead out to 36-24.
Mimi Smith had 16 points, and Laine Lyles had 15 for the Lady Eagles, a defending regional champion in Class 3A.
CULVER ACADEMY (48) (4-0)
Lyles 6 3-8 15, Maci Smith 0 0-0 0, Chapman 2 1-3 5, Mimi Smith 5 5-8 16, Treber 1 5-10 7, Tumpson 0 0-0 0, Hu 0 0-0 0, Kresser 2 0-0 5, Dickey 0 0-2 0
TEAM: 16 14-31 48
VALLEY (37) (1-1)
Hadley Wise 3 6-6 13, Savana Miller 1 3-4 6, Kinley Crabb 3 1-2 8, Maycee Koch 1 0-0 2, Izzy Woodruff 1 4-6 6, Lillie Koch 1 0-0 2, Chaney Miller 0 0-0 0, Hailey Craft 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 10 14-18 37
Three-point field goals:
Culver Academy 2 (Mimi Smith, Kresser),
Valley 3 (Wise, Crabb, S. Miller)
Total fouls: Culver Academy 18, Valley 20
Fouled out: Wise (TV), M. Koch (TV)
Score by quarters
Culver Academy 15 10 11 12 – 48
Valley 13 9 2 13 – 37
