The atmosphere was as electric as any girls basketball regular season game has been in years. Tecumseh brought a good contingent of fans, and Tippecanoe nearly filled their side with supporters.
As for the game, it was as good as advertised. The Arrows withstood a solid game from the Red Devils, and escaped with a 57-48 victory last Saturday night.
With the win, the Arrows can wrap up at last a share of the league title tonight against Stebbins, and with a win over Bellefontaine, would win the title outright. Tipp needs some help, as not only do they have to win their remaining league games, but need Tecumseh to lose to share the title.
“Stebbins can give us a run, but we are hoping to wrap this up (tonight) on senior night, that’s what we have left to do,” Tecumseh coach Danielle Thomas said. “If the kids want to cut the nets down on their home floor, they know what they have to do.”
Tecumseh led early 7-2 and 10-4 before the Red Devils put together a 6-0 run as Taylor Prall scored four points in the run. After the Arrows regained the lead, Tipp made a big run to end the quarter outscoring the Arrows 8-3 over the final 1:46 to take an 18-15 lead after the opening period.
Tecumseh’s Lindsey Nartker then took over the game for the first four minutes of the second period. The senior scored eight points to give the Arrows a 23-20 lead at the 4:00 mark. After Sammie Rowland hit a three for Tipp, it was another 7-0 run capped by a three from Corinne Thomas giving the Arrows a 32-23 lead late in the half.
Prall scored five points to close the half and Tecumseh’s lead was cut to 34-28 at the half.
In the fourth quarter, the Arrows did something completely opposite of their normal gameplan to wrap up the victory. Known for scoring a lot of points, the Arrows took the air out of the ball for most of the fourth period hanging onto a ten point lead.
“We got handcuffed and it’s hard to take our starters off the floor in a big game,” Thomas said. “We had to get creative and I figured why risk it. We had to use time management.”
“You just have to make attempts to get the basketball and foul and hope to extend the game if they can miss their free throws,” Tippecanoe coach Andy Holderman said. “We are playing for a nice tournament run, so it was good that they did that so we can learn from it.”
“We had some kids out there with four fouls, so part of that was on me, I probably should have subbed out to have others out there to use up the fouls.”
Nartker led Tecumseh with 20 points, Danielle Franklin added 14, Thomas nine and Presley Griffitts added eight. Tipp was led by Prall with 16, Rowland had eight and Allison Mader seven.
Tipp hosts Bellefontaine tonight and travels to Northwestern on Saturday, while Tecumseh hosts Stebbins tonight, and goes to Greenon on Saturday night.
