Cooper helps carry Knights past West Vigo

Mar. 4—For three seasons now, senior Brevin Cooper has been filling the boxscore for Northview's high school basketball team in a number of ways — rebounds, assists, steals and sometimes even blocked shots.

Wednesday night, the Knights needed him to score.

Cooper had a game-high 32 points, virtually all of them in crucial situations, as the Knights finally pulled away from upset-minded West Vigo for a 72-61 win at the Class 3A Owen Valley Sectional.

The Knights had beaten the Vikings 66-42 in early December, and when they burst ahead 10-2, then 13-5, then 17-9 on Wednesday, a similar outcome seemed reasonable. Cooper had nine points and four rebounds in the first quarter, incidentally.

It was 19-13 at the end of that quarter, and still an eight-point game at 27-19. But, even though the tempo of the game might not have been what they wanted it to be, the Vikings closed out the first half with an 11-3 run — including 7-of-10 free throw shooting — to get to the locker room tied 30-30.

"We were hoping to keep the game in the 50s," coach Joe Boehler of the Vikings said after the game. "I was concerned at the end of the first quarter, when [the Knights] had already scored 19, but in the second quarter we started playing pretty well . . . I felt decent about where we were at [at halftime]."

While coach Michael Byrum of the Knights didn't mind getting off to a good start, he hadn't been making any assumptions as a result.

"They've been playing really well," he said of the Vikings. "We knew they weren't going to go away."

"Our defense was lacking," Cooper said when asked about his outlook at halftime. "We had to come out harder, start moving the ball, get some consecutive stops and start making some shots."

"I was concerned [at halftime] about our lack of effort with rebounding," Byrum added, "and our defense was not quite where it should be."

Cooper opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, and West Vigo turned the ball over on its first three second-half possessions. But Cody Bunch got to the free throw line for the Vikings and hit two, and Imare Holman scored on a driving layup. With 4:31 left in the first quarter, West Vigo had its first — and, as it turned out, only — lead at 34-33.

Cooper wiped out that lead 15 seconds later, driving for a three-point play. A basket by Zeke Tanoos of West Vigo tied the score for the last time, but Cooper scored again. A basket by Northview's Caleb Swearingen, followed by a 3-pointer by Holman, made it a 40-39 game, but the Knights got the last eight points of the third quarter — a 3-pointer and a buzzer-beating layup by Cooper, sandwiched around Swearingen's three-point play off a coast-to-coast drive with a defensive rebound.

Cooper had outscored the Vikings 13-9 by himself in the third quarter (Swearingen had Northview's other five) and Northview wasn't seriously threatened again.

"I was just driving to the hole," Cooper explained, "trying to create or finish at the rim . . . you've got to step up at the sectional."

"That's what good seniors do, and we've got two great ones [Cooper and Swearingen]," Byrum said. "We expect them to carry us when we need it."

West Vigo hadn't quit fighting, and two free throws by Holman and a steal and layup by Bunch had the Vikings within 53-47 early in the fourth quarter. But the Knights responded with an 8-1 run — Cooper had a basket, an assist and two free throws — and the margin was never again below double figures.

"[The Knights] started to pull away, and we couldn't answer," Boehler said.

Swearingen added 21 points to Cooper's career-high point total, and Drew Cook scored 10. The 130-pound Cooper was also the game's leading rebounder with eight.

All five West Vigo starters were in double figures: Holman with 14, Case Lautenschlager with 13, Gabe Newhouse and Bunch with 12 each and Tanoos with 10. Tanoos is a freshman, but the other four are the West Vigo senior class.

"From where we started 1/8 0-3, 1-5, 4-9 3/8 to where we finished, we improved quite a bit," Boehler summarized. "I'm proud of how [the Vikings] handled things. This was the best locker room we've had in a long time — maybe ever — and the seniors were great, all leaders. They've been a fun group to coach."