Gonzalez takes over in OT, helps Valley hand Bremen first loss

Wise hits game-tying 3, Bussard adds 13

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Gabby Gonzalez Dalynne Bussard

BREMEN — On a night in which Bremen girls basketball player Eliana Grubbs was celebrated, Tippecanoe Valley senior point guard Gaby Gonzalez upstaged her.

Gonzalez scored 14 points, including all nine Valley points in overtime, and Hadley Wise hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in regulation as the visiting Lady Vikings beat the Class 2A, No. 7 Lady Lions 46-39 Saturday.

Wise and Dalynne Bussard had 13 points each in support of Gonzalez’s heroic performance.

Emma Kincaid scored 16 points, Grubbs had 13, and Teagan Feathers had 10 for Bremen.

Bremen had 14 turnovers, eight of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Valley improved to 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the Indiana Northern State Conference. Bremen dropped to 12-1, 3-1. John Glenn is also 3-1 in the INSC with a loss against Bremen and a win over Valley.

The conference will be decided Jan. 10: Valley hosts Jimtown, John Glenn travels to LaVille, and Bremen hosts Knox.

Valley trailed by as many as seven and never led until the overtime, when Gonzalez scored on a nifty driving scoop banker after a Grubbs missed 3-pointer.

Gonzalez said it is a shot she practices “all the time.” Asked how crucial footwork is to that shot, she said “all of it.”

“It’s in there,” Gonzalez said. “I go and work with my stepdad. He takes me to the gym, and we work on all of those things when the defense comes, what to do.”

Gonzalez split a pair of free throws with 2:44 left to make it 40-37. After a Wise miss, Gonzalez came up with a steal, and Grubbs fouled out with 1:48 left.

Gonzalez split another pair of free throws.

Kincaid missed a 3, and Gonzalez rebounded and hit two more free throws with 56.9 seconds left to make it 43-37.

Feathers split a pair of free throws. Gonzalez split a pair. Kincaid split a pair with 24.7 seconds left.

Gonzalez completed the scoring by making two more free throws with 3.6 seconds left.

Valley coach Rebekah Parker said she had been urging Gonzalez to be more productive.

“She just took over,” Parker said. “She’s so capable of that, and I’m so happy for her. And I’ve talked about I’m hard on Gabby. She really stepped up and was the catalyst for us making that turnaround. She controlled the tempo. She did everything for us in making sure we weren’t going to lose that game. The will to win for her was incredible tonight.”

Valley relied primarily on a 1-3-1 zone while Bremen played a 2-3 zone. The game required Valley to be more patient than they typically have during their wins, according to Parker.

“We were time of possession-oriented, and I think that the big leaders of our team stepped up in big moments,” Parker said. “It is new to us to take that much time and to make the defense work and to understand that by being patient, eventually things will open up. And I thought we may not have showed it the first three quarters, but towards the end, we were able to get some looks and some deep seals that we didn’t get early on, and hopefully, that was attributed to our patience in the first half.”

Valley trailed 28-21 after three quarters, and they still trailed 37-31 with 2:15 left after a Grubbs 3-point play that Emma Lawmaster initiated after a long inbounds touchdown pass behind the Valley press that Grubbs finished with a spin move at the rim.

The 3-point play gave Grubbs 1,001 career points, and there was a brief timeout to present Grubbs with a special ball to commemorate the milestone, and the crowd gave her a long ovation.

Valley responded by outscoring Bremen 15-2 the rest of the way.

Bussard hit two free throws with 1:24 left. Gonzalez made a free throw with 1:06 left. She missed the second but hustled down her own rebound before she was called for traveling.

Bremen called timeout with 1:03 left, but Valley forced a held ball with 56.1 seconds left, and the arrow pointed towards Valley. 

Gonzalez and Wise played catch on the perimeter. Wise turned down a potential look from the right wing and instead passed to Gonzalez. Bremen closed out hard on Gonzalez, who passed back to Wise, who found a gap in the zone. She swished a 3 to tie it.

Gonzalez said Wise predicted her own clutch shot.

“It was amazing,” Gonzalez said. “I love her, man. She came out of the timeout, and she’s like, ‘Gaby, I’m hitting this,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, you are.’”

Bremen called timeout with 35.4 seconds left. Grubbs missed, and Savana Miller rebounded for Valley, who called timeout with 8.1 seconds left. 

Miller launched a potential game-winning trey at the buzzer, but Natalie Harmon blocked it as time expired.

Parker reinserted Betty Shepherd to take the opening tip of the overtime, but Feathers won the tip for Bremen.

But Grubbs missed, and Gonzalez had the ball and the game in her hands.

Gonzalez was there when Bremen’s Ellia Foster hit a late 3-pointer in the 2024 sectional final to beat Valley. She was also there last year in the fourth quarter when Foster’s hot fourth quarter shooting helped overtake Valley in the fourth quarter.

“Me and the seniors were talking about they knocked us off the last two years when really they shouldn’t have, so this year coming in, we really wanted that redemption game, so we practiced for it, we fought for it, and so coming in, we were like, we’re going to spoil them right here. They’re 12-0, haven’t lost a game, so we wanted to be the ones that upset them.”

Tippecanoe Valley 46, Bremen 39 (OT)

VALLEY (46) (8-3, 3-1)

Gaby Gonzalez 3 8-12 14, Hadley Wise 6 0-0 13, Savana Miller 0 0-0 0, Izzy Woodruff 1 1-2 3, Dalynne Bussard 2 9-10 13, Hailey Stookey 1 0-0 3, Malaynie Costello 0 0-0 0, Betty Shepherd 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 18-24 46

BREMEN (39) (12-1, 3-1)

Emma Lawmaster 0 0-0 0, Emma Kincaid 4 5-7 16, Eliana Grubbs 5 2-2 13, Natalie Harmon 0 0-0 0, Teagan Feathers 4 2-3 10, Lola Bender 0 0-0 0, Skylee Feathers 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 13 9-12 39

Three-point field goals:

Valley 2 (Wise, Stookey),

Bremen 4 (E. Kincaid, Grubbs)

Total fouls: Valley 13, Bremen 15

Turnovers: Valley 12, Bremen 14

Score by quarters

Valley 6 8 7 16 9 – 46

Bremen 8 9 11 9 2 – 39