Tippecanoe Valley’s Addy Miller, left, and Sophie Bussard converge on Fairfield’s Jenean Schwartz. The play resulted in a steal for Bussard, leading to a key sequence in the second quarter of Valley’s 60-48 sectional championship win Saturday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

LIGONIER – Throw another log on the fire, Tippecanoe Valley won another girls basketball championship. There’s plenty of reason to celebrate, but Valley took its 60-48 victory over Fairfield in stride Saturday night.

“Winning the sectional is nice, but that isn’t our final goal, it’s just one of the goals,” said Valley senior guard Meredith Brouyette. “Beating NorthWood and Fairfield were mini goals, now it’s beating Fort Wayne Concordia and whoever at night in the regional.”

Anne Secrest led the way for Valley with 20 points.

Valley certainly looked like the team that has been there, done that. Winning its third straight Class 3-A sectional title, the Lady Vikes faced a bit of adversity in the first half, turned it around, and never were threatened in the final 16 minutes.

The pivotal sequence in the sectional championship came with less than a minute to go in the second quarter. Valley led 33-27 after Emily Peterson hit a jumper, and Fairfield seemed content to hold for the final shot of the half. But Sophie Bussard came up with a steal and went to the line, hitting her first attempt. The second rimmed out to teammate Meredith Brouyette, who sank a seven-foot jumper just before the buzzer. The five-point swing in Valley’s favor had the champs up 36-27, and another team photo was in the works.

“We really weren’t able to shake them,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Chris Kindig. “I thought at the end of the first half when Meredith got that rebound then the basket, and now we are up nine instead of six or seven. We were able to maintain that the whole second half. So that was big for us.”

Valley burst out of the half on fire, taking a 42-29 lead and held Fairfield to at least a four-possession deficit the rest of the way.

Hannah Dunn cuts down her third sectional championship net.

Another example of the team-first play for Valley came early in the fourth after Erica Zook converted an and-one to get Fairfield within nine, Hannah Dunn – who was the hero against NorthWood Friday night in the semis – stepped in and hit a floater to put Valley back up double digits. Fairfield wouldn’t get the game under nine points the rest of the way.

“Sometimes all you need is just one little play to get going,” said Dunn, who scored just the one basket in the game. “You don’t always have to be all about the scoring. Sometimes it’s about getting a block or a steal to get the team going.”

Anne Secrest again put the weight of the team on her shoulders, scoring 20 points and forcing Fairfield to choose either doubling her down low leaving a three-point shooter open or take their chances one in one five feet from the cup. Addy Miller and Peterson both hit a pair of threes, Peterson going for 12 points and Miller for eight points. Bussard would break double digits with 11 points.

“It’s been our thing this year to have a bunch of people get eight or nine points,” Brouyette said. “For us to have three or four players get seven points, I love that. It shows that we are moving the ball around and we’re not predictable. It’s unselfish play and if someone gets 15 points, hey great, we’re happy with that.”

Fairfield, which closes at 13-10, had four girls do all of its scoring. Felicity Bontrager led the Falcons with 16 points, Jordan Kintigh had 12 points, Alexis Thaxton had 11 points and Zook had nine points.

Tippecanoe Valley (22-4) moves into the four-team bracket at the Columbia City Regional next Saturday, where it will face Fort Wayne Concordia (20-4), which beat Fort Wayne Dwenger 47-42, in the second game at approximately noon. Game one at 10 a.m. will pit Norwell (16-9), a 48-41 winner over Columbia City, against defending state champion Heritage Christian (19-6), a 35-28 winner over Hamilton Heights.