Tipp opens up close game with big third quarter

After a hard-fought first half of action, the Tippecanoe girls basketball team turned things on in the third period, outscoring Greenville by 20 points. They actually scored as many points in the third quarter as they did in the entire first half en route to a 60-27 rout of Greenville last week to maintain their spot at the top of the MVL Division standings.

With the win, Tipp improved to 13-5 overall and ties Butler at 12-3 atop the Miami Division standings with one week left in the regular season.

“The first half was definitely a battle. They did a really good job attacking our pressure and handled it really well,” said Tipp coach Christina Pentaudi. “In the second half, we really honed in our defense more and were stricter and more fundamental, and we had much better ball movement with an inside-out game. The first half we were just shooting from the perimeter, and we talked about that at halftime.”

Three players reached double figures for the Red Devils, as Courtney Post led with 16 points and established herself inside the paint the whole night. Emily Aselage had a big night for Tipp with 12 points, and Laney Cleckner added 10 points in the win.
The Red Devils jumped in front quickly 10-2 as Cleckner opened the game with a big three and scored five of the first ten points. After Aselage pushed the lead to 12-4, Greenville closed the gap with four points in the final 35 seconds.

Tipp went on another big run in the second quarter as they opened on a 9-0 run behind five points from freshman Madi Turner. With the Red Devils leading 21-8, they were held to only three points over the final 6:02 of the half as Greenville battled back to 24-16 at the half with an 8-3 run. Also in this game, Greenville was playing without their leading scorer Megan Lind, who is recovering from a knee injury.

Tipp then put the game away quickly in the third period. The Red Devils scored the first 19 points of the quarter, including six from Post along with big threes from Clecker and Savannah Clawson to give Tipp a 43-16 lead. They never looked back from there.

*Tipp also earned a big win against Fairborn on Wednesday, then hosted Piqua on Saturday on Senior Day. Honored before the game included Cleckner, Emma Stallard, and Samantha Wall. The Red Devils defeated the Indians 53-44 as the Red Devils were led by Post with 12 and Cleckner added 11. Wall also played in her only game of the season and scored to begin the game.

The MVL title comes down to this week. Butler, Tipp, and Sidney are all 14-3, with Stebbins standing 13-4 in conference play. Stebbins plays at Butler on Friday and Tipp heads to Sidney on Saturday morning. The league title will be determined in those two games.