Alec Craig (24), Neil Clampitt (34) and Gavin Bussard of Tippecanoe Valley have been hounding teams defensively this season. (Photo by Mike Deak)

AKRON – Don’t tell Bill Patrick that the boys basketball sectional pairings are a “random” draw.

The Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball coach and Hall of Famer would be a tough one to convince of that.

Patrick’s Vikings for the fourth straight year and the fifth time in the last six seasons will face Wawasee in the first round of the state tournament series. The postseason meeting comes on Tuesday night at the Class 3-A NorthWood Sectional, just four days after the teams squared off at Wawasee Friday night in the the regular-season finale.

“It’s not an ideal situation that’s for sure,” said Patrick prior to facing the Warriors Friday night in Syracuse. “But you can’t worry too much about it. It just seems like Green on Green keeps coming up every year when our sectional draw is done.”

The Vikings topped the Warriors 53-35 in the regular-season finale for both teams Friday night.

Valley, which is 2-2 in its last four sectional meeting versus Wawasee (including a 50-39 loss in the first round at West Noble last year), will take a surging squad into the postseason. The Vikings have won five of their last six games, including four in a row, to improve to 10-12.

“We’re playing well right now,” noted Patrick, the owner of 753 coaching wins in his illustrious 47-year career. “We aren’t even the same team that we were at the start of the year. We have been playing well for the most part since we beat Whitko (64-55 on Dec. 18 in South Whitley).”

The Vikings have rebounded well from a slow start in which they were 1-5.

“We got off to a slow start because most of our guys did not play in the offseason,” noted Patrick. “Most of them were playing other sports. We had to spend a lot of our practice time on fundamentals, especially early on. The guys have gotten a lot better. We have cut down on our turnovers, gotten better defensively and shot the ball better lately, too.”

Valley, which finished 5-4 in Three Rivers Conference play, has faced just two teams in the sectional field in Wawasee and Fairfield. The winner of the Valley-Wawasee game will face the Falcons (13-9) in a semifinal contest. Fairfield defeated Valley 49-35 in a semifinal game of the Winning Edge Holiday Tournament back on Dec. 29.

“NorthWood, no doubt, is at the top of our sectional,” said Patrick of the Class 3-A No. 2 Panthers, who are 20-2 on the season and will be going for a third straight sectional title and a fourth in the last five years. “After that, I think that the other five teams are pretty even. I think that all of them could beat each other on a given night. I think that us or Wawasee or Fairfield could be there in the final.”

The Vikings have also prospered of late as its roster has been at full strength.  Neil Clampitt missed four games due to a hand injury, while Jarod Duzenbery missed one due to a concussion. The duo of Alec Craig and Gavin Bussard were the only players to appear in all 22 games for Valley.

Valley is led by junior Craig, a three-sport athlete for the Vikings. The guard is averaging 13.4 points-per-game and leads his team in both assists and steals. Clampitt, a senior, averages 12 ppg., while senior Duzenbery checks in at 8.3 and senior Gavin Bussard is at 7.2. Bussard is the top rebounder for the Vikings, while Duzenbery is No. 2.

Craig and Duzenbery each scored 14 points in the win at Wawasee Friday night.

Seniors Trevor Neeley and Brandon Webster have both made big contributions for the Vikings. Each average five points-per-game and Neeley leads the team with 31 treys, while Webster had made 23 shots from distance.

“I think that a big key for us versus Wawasee will be our rebounding,” stated Patrick. “That concerns me because we have struggled rebounding all season. We need to keep our turnovers down and continue to shoot the ball well and continue to do a good job of getting it inside.”

Patrick ranks No. 1 among active coaches in state history with his 754 wins. Patrick is 754-303 overall, including a 276-123 mark in his 18th season at Tippecanoe Valley. Patrick’s 754 career wins ranks third all-time in state history behind only Jack Butcher and Pat Rady. Butcher won 806 games in 45 years and Rady posted 761 wins in 51 seasons.

The Valley boys basketball program has won a total of nine sectional championships. The last one came in 2013.