Junior Caylie Teel will lead a talented group of guards this season for Tippecanoe Valley. The Vikings open the season versus Bremen Thursday night (File photo by Mike Deak)

AKRON – Tippecanoe Valley girls basketball coach Chris Kindig doesn’t think putting the ball in the basket will be an issue for his team this season.

He does believe though that taking better care of that ball and an improved defensive performance will be the keys to a successful campaign.

Kindig welcomes back his top three scorers from a year ago when the Vikings finished 7-13 overall and 3-4 in the Three Rivers Conference.

“I’m not worried about what we can do offensively,” said Kindig as he enters his fourth season. “I like what we have and think we will score.

“Taking care of the ball will be a big key and a big factor for us this season. We need to cut down on our turnovers from last year and I think we will. Our guard play should be much improved with the experience we have.

“Our focus has been on working better as a team and focusing on the defensive end. I think our defense will be better this season. We scrimmaged Elkhart Memorial (last Thursday) and it was the most competitive we’ve been since I’ve been here.”

Valley averaged 51 points-per-game a year ago, but allowed almost 56 points-per-contest.

The Vikings will be led by senior standout Cara Hoffman. The 5-5 guard averaged a team-high 12.9 points-per-game a year ago in earning All-TRC honors.

“Cara is our leader and we look to her to be that as one of our captains,” Kindig said.

Valley also returns the outstanding duo of senior Kelsey Ball and junior Caylie Teel. Ball, a 5-11 forward, enters her fourth season as a starter. She averaged 6.5 points and seven rebounds per game and led her team in assists a year ago. Teel, a 5-7 guard, averaged 10.5 points-per-game.

The Viking lineup should also feature Karis Tucker, a 5-4 sophomore, at point guard and Anne Secrest, a 6-0 freshman center, as its starters for the opener versus Bremen Thursday night.

“We have a nice combination of guards and we should be able to play different defenses with our guards and our size up front,” remarked Kindig.

The Vikings are missing a couple of key pieces right now due to injuries. Senior Sara Alexander and junior Taylor Trippiedi are both out. Alexander, a 6-3 center, is resting a knee injury that she played through during volleyball season. Trippiedi, a 5-5 guard who averaged 6.3 points-per-game last season, had her knee scoped last week.

“We’re hoping to get Taylor back in about 2-3 weeks and for Sara to be ready sometime in early December,” said Kindig.

“We do have a lot of experience and a strong top 5-6 kids. We do have some concern right now with some of our youth and inexperience with our bench with the injuries we have.”

The Valley roster also includes senior Robyn Dunnuck, junior Madison Strong and freshmen Meredith Brouyette and Hannah Dunn.

The Vikings host Bremen Thursday in the opener and then entertain Warsaw Nov. 22 and host their own tourney Nov. 30.  Kindig points to the five straight road games after that, with trips to Plymouth (Dec. 5), the TRC opener at Wabash (Dec. 7), Triton (Dec. 11), North Miami (Dec. 13) and Winamac (Dec. 19) as a huge key to the season.

“That’s going to be a big challenge,” said Kindig of the tough five-game stretch in December. “That might define our season.”