Vikings split with Indian Creek; IC girls clinch share of WIC title

Jan. 23—The comeback in the first game of a Western Indiana Conference high school basketball doubleheader Saturday at West Vigo was brief, leaving the host Vikings on the short end of the score.

The comeback in the second game started a little later but was stopped only by the game's final buzzer, enabling the Vikings to hang on by their fingertips.

Visiting Indian Creek clinched no worse than a tie for the WIC girls championship with its 41-24 win in the opener, while West Vigo's 63-59 win — in a game the Vikings appeared to have had wrapped up by halftime — kept the Viking boys firmly in the first division of the conference.

Barely.

A 23-point West Vigo lead was cut to one with 15.9 seconds remaining when Trent Volz hit a 3-pointer after two missed Viking free throws, and the Vikings had already turned the ball over six times in the fourth quarter against the Braves' press. But Ethan Kesler in-bounded the ball over that press to Ian Beaver streaking to the other end, and Beaver made a layup and completed a three-point play to finally put the visitors away.

"The first two quarters I thought we played really good basketball offensively and defensively," Viking coach Joe Boehler said after the game. "At halftime our lead [35-17] was bigger than the amount of points [the Braves] had, so I was feeling pretty good.

"I don't know if we got complacent, but in the fourth quarter we just seemed to fall apart and were waiting for the clock to run out."

"We got off to a good start," Viking senior Connor Martin agreed, "but we kind of slowed down in the third quarter."

The early portion of the game was characterized by two things: how well the Vikings were playing, as Boehler indicated, and how lethargic the visitors — who had played less than 24 hours earlier, then endured a long bus ride to the Jim Mann Green Dome — appeared to be.

West Vigo jumped out to an 11-2 lead, allowed the visitors to creep back within 19-15, then scored 10 straight on 3-pointers by Kesler and Martin, a rebound basket by Martin and two free throws by Zeke Tanoos. The 35-17 halftime lead grew to 43-20 early in the third quarter after six straight points by Whyatt Easton.

But coach Drew Glentzer of the Braves had already started dipping into his junior varsity roster for players (who were playing their second game of the day) and put Indian Creek into a full-court press. The combination seemed to energize the Braves.

Indian Creek got the last five points of the third quarter to come within 45-30, then got red-hot from the field in the fourth period. A 3-pointer by Bryce Armstrong got the margin inside 10 points at 52-43 — the Braves hadn't missed a fourth-quarter shot at that point — and when West Vigo twice hit just one of two free throws, Indian Creek traded those single points for baskets that had the Braves within 54-47.

It was still 60-54 after Martin and Tanoos both hit pairs of free throws, but Javan Crouch rebounded his own miss for a basket before the two missed free throws set up Volz' basket and the Kesler-to-Beaver heroics.

"Indian Creek is very physical. They're always a tough opponent," Martin said. "But at the end of the day we got the job done. We made enough plays to get it done."

"We've got to handle end-of-game situations better," Boehler said. "But to our credit, we made some plays and got out of here with a win."

Martin and Easton led West Vigo with 18 points each. Tanoos and Beaver had nine points and four assists each, with Beaver grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.

Javan Crouch led all scorers with 21 points for Indian Creek, while Volz added 10. Volz, one of the JV substitutes, and varsity reserve Aiden Pemberton got all 16 of their combined points in the fourth quarter, when the visitors shot 70%.

It was a lesson learned, Martin said. "We've got to play all four quarters. We'll get back to practice and work on that."

The girls game was decided — and decided early — by the fear factor induced by Indian Creek's 6-foot-4 sophomore Faith Wiseman. Although Wiseman didn't score from the field again after making her first two shots — including a 3-pointer — she also grabbed 15 rebounds, blocked three shots, influenced a few more shots and discouraged more than that. West Vigo needed the final basket of the first quarter to cut the visitors' lead to 16-3.

Once the Vikings settled in, however, they made a game of it for a while. It was still a 13-point game at halftime, and when the visitors went cold at the start of the second half West Vigo got within 22-14 after driving layups by Katelyn Fennell and LaNiceon Holman and a free throw by Holman.

Indian Creek reheated at that point, however, and the Vikings were on their way to a 23% shooting night. It was still 35-24 after Fennell scored five straight points, but the Braves scored the last six points.

"I was pleased with how we played," coach Jonathan Kirchoff said afterward, "but recently we've come out flat in games. We can't spot teams a whole quarter."

Sophomore Lauren Foster led Indian Creek with 14 points and also had seven rebounds, while freshman Ayla Lollar had eight points, six rebounds and five steals. The young Braves appear to be a WIC contender for a couple of more years, and they can add former Brown County star Abby Fleetwood for this postseason if Fleetwood's 365 transfer days end in time.

Fennell led West Vigo with 13 points, while Adelynn Harris had a team-high eight rebounds plus four steals. The Vikings were without two of their usual top seven players, which gave Holman a start and gave Morgan Griffin and Lily Ramirez some varsity time.

"It hurt not having Ellie [Easton] and Avery [Lasecki]," Kirchoff said, "but the people that played stepped up and did their roles well."