Valley overcomes Wise’s foul trouble, bench sparks rout of Knox

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Izzy Woodruff Malaynie Costello

AKRON — The Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball team overcame Hadley Wise’s foul trouble and took advantage of Serenity Nava’s foul trouble to pull away from Knox in the second half and win 67-35 in their Indiana Northern State Conference opener at Rita Price Simpson Court Thursday.

Savana Miller scored a career-high 15 points off the bench to support Wise’s 15 for Valley (3-1). Malaynie Costello scored nine, including the 3-pointer with 30 seconds left that caused a riotous celebration on the Valley bench as they reached 67 – or is that “6-7” – points.

Jayla Patrick led Knox with 17 points, and Riley Taylor had 11.

Nava, Knox’s 4-11 sophomore point guard, picked up her third and fourth fouls in an eight-second span in the third quarter. Over eight minutes from the time Nava hit the bench and the time of Knox’s next field goal.

But Valley’s changing defenses – mostly man-to-man, according to coach Rebekah Parker – were oppressive. They forced 22 turnovers while allowing only one field goal in the second and third quarters combined.

Knox finished with 34 turnovers while Valley had just eight.

“We really tried to stick in a man-to-man for the most part,” Parker said. “I was a little bit stubborn in staying with that obviously. They shot a lot of free throws because we couldn’t keep hands off people. But I hope that we can learn to adjust to how the game’s being called a little bit quicker.”

Miller ran the floor to score eight points in the third quarter. She scored on a cutting layup, scored in transition off a Gaby Gonzalez assist, got a layup after a Dalynne Bussard steal and assist that pushed the lead to 37-17 and then scored again in transition to close out the quarter. She capped a 15-0 run when she netted a 3-pointer from the right wing.

“Mostly 100 percent,” Miller said when asked how much running the floor in transition set up her scoring. “Thank you, Gaby and Hadley, for always looking up and giving great assists.”

Valley won their third straight game after a 53-point loss to Norwell in their opener and improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the INSC. Knox fell to 1-3, 0-1.

Wise got three baskets either in transition or early offense in the fourth quarter. That came after she had to sit the final 6:55 of the third quarter with four fouls.

“Norwell is really good,” Wise said. “Props to them. They’re awesome. But we got a lot better too. They kicked our butts so bad, but thank you to them in a way too because we’re like, OK, we can’t do that ever again. It was really embarrassing.”

Leading 13-12, Izzy Woodruff scored six points in the second quarter as Valley outscored the Lady Redskins 12-1. One basket came on a putback, one came after Wise dove on the floor for a loose ball and found Woodruff in transition, and the third came after she worked a screen-and-roll with Bussard.

“Izzy’s just fun to be around,” Parker said. “And everyone really likes Izzy. She’s really growing into this game. She put some time into it, and I think you’ll see from the start of the season until the end of the season how much she truly grows just with the experience with playing at this level. She’s a really good athlete, and I think the more experience and more minutes she gets at the varsity level, she’ll really start to flourish and help us on both ends of the floor.”

The three-game winning streak has also coincided with Izzy Woodruff’s insertion into the starting lineup.

“Izzy’s just a great leader,” Wise said. “She gets the team really hyped, and she also has really good ups. She also is smart. She’s smart with the ball. She’s good at defense. Savana’s really fast and a really good defender, and she finishes really well.”

Miller, a state finalist in golf, has become a varsity mainstay after playing JV only last year as a freshman. She said the varsity game is a “million times faster” than JV.

“I think I’m doing pretty decent,” Miller said. “From not even playing varsity last year to being one of the main players on varsity, I would say I’m pretty proud of myself. And coming off a good golf season, I just wanted to have fun, and I’m definitely doing that.”

Overall, Valley had a 24-0 advantage in bench points. Wise even compared reserve Betty Shepherd, a state qualifier in the 300 hurdles in track in 2024, to a “freak of nature” and said “it’s like having Shaquille O’Neal out there.”

“Those kids that can be interchangeable could be really helpful down the stretch,” Parker said. “Obviously, we want to wear people out, and so the number of bodies that we can throw at people helps us to stay fresh and continue to wear people down. We want to keep doing that and keep people gaining confidence on both ends of the floor.”

Tippecanoe Valley 67, Knox 35

KNOX (35) (1-3, 0-1)

Serenity Nava 0 0-0 0, Riley Taylor 4 1-2 11, Presley Messer 1 0-2 2, Elise Wolff 2 1-4 5, Jayla Patrick 4 7-8 17, Cheryl Barnes 0 0-0 0, Makenzie Sanders 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 11 9-16 35

VALLEY (67) (3-1, 1-0)

Gaby Gonzalez 3 1-1 7, Hadley Wise 6 3-4 15, Hailey Stookey 2 1-2 6, Izzy Woodruff 3 0-0 6, Malaynie Costello 4 0-0 9, Lillie Koch 0 0-0 0, Maycee Koch 2 0-0 4, Savana Miller 7 0-0 15, Dalynne Bussard 1 2-2 4, Betty Shepherd 0 1-4 1, Kinley Crabb 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 28 8-13 67

Three-point field goals:

Knox 4 (Patrick 2, Taylor 2),

Valley 3 (Miller, Costello, Stookey)

Total fouls: Knox 11, Valley 19

Turnovers: Knox 34, Valley 8

Score by quarters

Knox 12 1 9 13 – 35

Valley 13 12 20 22 – 67