Tipp inches closer to league title
Friday night was such a huge win for the Tippecanoe boys basketball team. Not only did they finish the season sweep of the top team in the Valley Division of the MVL, but it also brought them closer to winning the league championship.
The Red Devils used a strong fourth quarter to escape with a 54-49 victory over Sidney. A victory on Friday against Butler will give them the outright championship against the Aviators and a chance to avenge an early season loss in Vandalia.
Tipp had an early ten point lead over Sidney in the opening period, but the Yellow Jackets eventually tied the game at 23 in the second period. It was never more than a four point difference until the fourth period.
“They are not always pretty, and a lot of ours have not been pretty, but I thought it was a gritty performance for our guys,” Tipp coach Brock Moon. “We struggled at times, but I thought at the end we made some big plays to pull it out.”
Tipp came out of the gate fast with consecutive threes from Jackson Davis. Then, shortly after Sidney closed the gap, Collin Turner and CJ Bailey connected on two more from behind the arc. The Red Devils led 14-4 with 3:16 left in the opening period.
Sidney shut out the Tipp offense the final 2:46 of the period to close the gap heading into the second.
Sidney took their first lead at 24-23 with just over three minutes left in the half. When AJ Jergens knocked down a three late in the half, the Red Devils led 28-26. A pair of last second free throws tied the game 28-28 heading into the half.
“They hit seven threes on us in the first half in our first meeting. That was a big thing coming in. They have kids who can shoot the ball with two 1,000-point scorers on the same team,” Moon said. “We wanted to make them go finish at the rim and shoot tough twos.”
Both of Sidney’s 1,000-point scorers reached that milestone in this game, stopping the game twice to honor their great achievement.
Larkin Thomas scored six points in the third quarter as the Red Devils were clinging onto a 43-42 lead heading to the fourth.
One of the biggest plays of the game came in the closing minute with Tipp leading 51-49. The Red Devils missed a pair of free throws but Davis was there to secure what turned out to be a game clinching offensive rebound. He found Thomas who was then fouled. The sophomore clinched the win with two free throws.
Bailey led Tipp with 15 points, Thomas added 15 and Turner added 10 to give Tipp their 17th win of the season and lock up the #2 seed for the tournament draw.
