‘We marked it as a championship game:’ Cooksey, Hamilton help Valley hold off Garrett

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

DeOndre Hamilton Stephen Akase

Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball coach Joe Luce set last week up like a sectional.

The way it played out, they hope they get to repeat their accomplishment in two weeks.

Playing barely 18 hours after beating Jimtown in overtime Friday to wrap up the first Indiana Northern State Conference title, Valley returned to the court and rode Ian Cooksey’s 19 points to a 46-43 win over Garrett at Rita Price Simpson Court Saturday afternoon.

DeOndre Hamilton added 11, and Stephen Akase had six, including the go-ahead putback with 1:51 left that broke a 41-41 tie and put Valley ahead for good.

Isaiah King, a 6-5 sophomore who possessed both a rugged inside game and a deft perimeter touch, led Garrett with 18 points. Gabe Armstrong added 12.

Davis Cowan split a pair of free throws to give Valley a 46-43 lead with 22.4 seconds left. Garrett ran the clock down to 11.4 seconds left before coach Logan Traylor called timeout.

Carter Coffman would eventually get a 3-point look from the left corner in the final seconds, but he missed, and Valley’s Blain Sheetz rebounded just before time expired.

Valley won their ninth straight game and improved to 15-4. Their defensive scoring average of 39.8 ranks eighth in the state. Only three opponents have reached 50 points against the Vikings this season.

The last four wins – a streak that started with an Akase buzzer beater against Western – have been by a combined total of 13 points. They began the week with a 49-44 win over North Miami Tuesday.

So even though the Jimtown game decided the conference race, Luce placed importance on the Garrett game too.

“It shows a lot of resilience,” Luce said. “It shows a lot of togetherness. … It shows a lot of trust that we have within each other. I think it was just a really good three-game stretch that we talked about as a sectional atmosphere. You have to be able to win Tuesday, you come back and you got a big win Friday, and then you’ve got to bounce back and you’ve got to be resilient to find a way to win on Saturday. … We marked it as a championship game tonight.”

Garrett, who waxed Eastside 83-34 Friday night, dropped to 15-6.

Luce said he did not consider fouling with a 3-point lead late.

“We don’t do that,” Luce said. “I think you either have to be committed to you do that and you practice it or I think you have to be committed that you trust your defense and you get a stop. And I’ve just never sold out to the fact that I wanted to give up points. I don't feel comfortable giving up points. I don’t want to put somebody at the line. I trust my guys and know we were going to get a stop at the end.”

Luce also complimented Akase, whom he briefly benched to start the fourth quarter. Luce did not like Akase taking a 3-point shot at the end of the third quarter after Valley had bled the clock.

But Akase hit a 10-footer in the lane to give Valley a 34-31 lead to start the fourth quarter in addition to his even bigger basket later. He also held King scoreless in the final four minutes.

“It was really good,” Luce said of Akase’s defense. “Stephen struggled tonight. He didn’t have his best game, but I thought defensively, he did an excellent job of really locking King down in the fourth quarter and got a couple of big rebounds. That’s what you have to have. You’ve got to have guys that have short memories that put the bad behind them when they’re not playing their best and step up like he did.”

Cooksey praised the team’s chemistry.

“It’s been a long week but a fun week too,” Cooksey said. “You know, these games are fun, and winning them is more important. Our togetherness is off the roof, and we all love each other and got each other’s backs. I can tell Davis is struggling a little bit, but I love him. He’s going to come back. I know he will.”

An example of the chemistry might have manifested itself in reserve guard William Mellott, who got free for a transition layup in the second quarter and who also played in crunch time in the fourth quarter when Valley needed extra ballhandlers while protecting the lead.

“Huge,” Cooksey said. “He stepped up when Davis hurt his shoulder and just him being on the court stepping up and showing a lot of effort, and we can use him for future games.”

Garrett jumped out to an 18-13 lead after one quarter. Valley switched to a 2-2-1 halfcourt trap, and Cooksey outscored the entire Garrett team 6-4 in the second quarter.

He also got help from Hamilton, who had a layup to start the quarter off a Cooksey assist and scored in the post off an Owen Omondi assist to give Valley a 24-22 lead later in the quarter.

A Cooksey 3-pointer at the buzzer off an inbounds play gave Valley a five-point halftime lead.

But Garrett started the second half on a 9-3 run that King finished with a 3-point play off a screen-and-roll and took a 31-30 lead.

Hamilton also scored four of Valley’s five points in the third quarter, and his two free throws with 1:59 left gave Valley the lead back.

Cooksey later compared Hamilton to Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman for his energy and skill level.

Meanwhile, Traylor praised Cooksey.

“We felt there was a stretch there in the third quarter where we had some transition opportunities we didn’t convert in,” Traylor said. “We were able to get initial stops but just couldn’t rebound the basketball or put bodies on guys. I’ll give it to them. Tippy plays hard. I coach Steve (Akase) in the summer and Davis (Cowan) in the summer, so obviously super familiar with those guys. Ian Cooksey’s one of the best players I’ve seen this year – very fluid, gets to his spots really well. I thought even though we tried to take him away, he still found ways to impact the game. So that was really the turning point for us was probably Cooksey.”

Valley would eventually get the lead to 36-31 as Cowan found Cooksey on a back door cut, but an Armstrong spinning scoop and a Parker Reed 3-pointer tied it.

A Cooksey assist to Hamilton for a layin put Valley ahead, King slipped to the basket and scored. Armstrong gave Garrett a 39-38 lead with a free throw with 3:41 left.

Sheetz put back his own miss and converted it into a 3-point play to put Valley back ahead 41-39, but Coffman tied it with two free throws with 2:43 left.

Tippecanoe Valley 46, Garrett 43

GARRETT (43) (15-6)

Carter Coffman 2 3-4 8, Dawson Hedges 0 0-0 0, Gabe Armstrong 5 1-2 12, Parker Reed 2 0-0 5, Isaiah King 7 3-3 18, Aiden Reed 0 0-0 0, Jakob Hoover 0 0-0 0, Kohen Smith 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 16 7-9 43

VALLEY (46) (15-4)

Davis Cowan 0 2-4 2, Ian Cooksey 7 4-5 19, DeOndre Hamilton 4 3-4 11, Blain Sheetz 1 1-1 3, Stephen Akase 3 0-0 6, Owen Omondi 1 1-1 3, William Mellott 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 17 11-15 46

Three-point field goals:

Garrett 4 (King, Armstrong, Coffman, P. Reed),

Valley 1 (Cooksey)

Total fouls: Garrett 20, Valley 17

Fouled out: Hedges (GARR), 3:04, fourth

Turnovers: Garrett 14, Valley 18

Score by quarters

Garrett 18 4 9 12 – 43

Valley 13 14 5 14 – 46