Vikings finally pull away from scrappy Clovers
Feb. 14—The final score was one-sided, and the statistics for visiting West Vigo were solidly impressive.
But a determined effort by outmanned Cloverdale made the Western Indiana Conference high school basketball game a close one until its last 10 minutes Tuesday night, when the Vikings pulled away for a 74-43 win.
For the longest time it appeared the game was going to be a battle of attrition. The host Clovers were short-handed after recent injuries cost them both their point guards and West Vigo's key reserve Kaden Evans was out with an illness. So neither team used a substitute until the Vikings did so — effectively, as it turned out — in the middle of the third quarter and the Clovers didn't substitute until coach Karl Turk lifted his two remaining seniors for their final home ovations in the last two minutes.
By that time, the Vikings had finally put the stubborn Clovers away.
"Being their Senior Night, we knew coach Turk would get his kids to play extremely hard," coach Joe Boehler of the Vikings said after the game.
There were seven lead changes in the first 10 minutes. Cloverdale's biggest lead was at 11-7 after a layup by Levi Johnson and a 3-pointer by Noah Betz, but West Vigo got the next eight points — the last five of those by Jensen Turner to open the second quarter.
Johnson got free for another layup and Tayt Jackson hit from long range to give the home team its final advantage at 16-15, but then the Vikings — who shot nearly 60% from the field and 50% from 3-point range over the last three quarters — started to take over.
It was 31-24 in favor of the visitors at halftime and the lead grew to 10 points early in the third quarter. Cloverdale got back within six twice, the last time at 40-34 after pairs of free throws by Betz and McGuire Lee, but the Vikings got the last 10 of the third quarter and the first 12 of the fourth period.
"Maybe we came in overlooking some things," said Boehler, who mentioned his team had played an emotional overtime game with Terre Haute South in its previous game, "but we stuck to our plan and we pulled away at the end."
"We didn't have but five varsity players," Turk said, making air quotes for the word 'varsity.' "That's a lot of credit to the kids. We had to punt our game plan on Monday [because of the injuries]. But it was a solid effort for West Vigo, and [the Vikings] turned it up in the second half."
Zeke Tanoos continued his stellar play for West Vigo, winding up with game-high totals of 23 points, 12 rebounds and five steals and also handing out five assists. Turner also stayed hot with a 14-point output and freshman Garrett Pugh — the game's first substitute, with 4:51 left in the third quarter — managed to get 11 points and seven rebounds in the last 12:51.
"Garrett Pugh gave us a big lift," Boehler said.
Betz led the Clovers — whose shooting percentages went down as the Vikings' went up — with 18 points while Jackson scored nine. Lee had six points, six rebounds and four assists in his final home game.
