Tipp’s Abbi Mader rises to score three of her team-high 15 points in Wednesday’s win over Vandalia Butler. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Tippecanoe extinguished all hope early with a suffocating defense. The Lady Red Devils allowed just four made field goals in their 51-15 rout over Butler.
Vandalia, OH – Butler’s Wednesday pregame production was impressive. The hype video, the light show and the fog machine brought the juice. But after that…it was all smoke and no fire.
The Tipp Red Devils (11-0) came into Butler’s house and executed one of the more thorough thrashings of a 10-1 team you’ll ever see.
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An 18-0 run spanning most of the second quarter inflated Tipp’s early lead to 23-3, and things didn’t improve much from there for the Lady Aviators (10-2). Tipp sealed the coffin in the second quarter, but kept pounding nails in for good measure until they clinched a 51-15 victory.
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“We came out and hit them early, and they were like, ‘Whoa,’” said standout sophomore guard Abbi Mader. “And we just continued fighting and continued pushing, and eventually they just weren’t really able to respond.”
Defensive star Liv Hiser said Butler’s MVL reign inspired their redoubled effort despite already notching a double-digit win against the Aviators this season.
“We wanted it more than them because they’ve won the [Miami] division the last four years,” Hiser said.
Tipp now owns a commanding lead of the Miami Valley League.
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Maybe it was a result of getting that gut punch early in a rivalry, or an acknowledgment that Tipp won’t let anyone off the hook for a three-point first quarter. But the early evisceration was so complete, signs of demoralization and surrender bubbled up well before Butler hit the locker room for halftime.
“Right from the beginning it just felt like we were defeated already,” Butler coach Molly Bardonaro said. “Pregame we seemed ready to go and pretty confident. But we made a few quick turnovers and missed buckets, and then we just tried to do way too much on our own.”
Tipp’s Courtney Post works her way through a pair of Aviators to score in Wednesday’s 51-15 win.
Turnovers galore haunted Butler. It started with an over-and-back violation 11 seconds into the game, continued with a second turnover in as many possessions, and never stopped.
“Their length is intimidating,” Bardonaro said. “They’re big, they’re fast, they’re very long. And it made it hard for us to get anything going inside, like we like to. But we weren’t even looking to kick out. It was just all around not how we play.”
For the first three and a half scoreless minutes, Tipp didn’t shoot the ball well enough to make them pay. But nobody can win while turning the ball over regularly from tipoff to final horn.
The Aviators normally rely on junior forward Emma Dady to score (14.6 ppg) and rebound (12.7 rpg). But she did neither effectively. Tipp forwards Hiser and Reese Hoover gave no ground on the block, often denying her an open entry pass, and when necessary, neutralizing her on the occasion she got her hands on the rock.
“Emma Dady was the main focus of our game today because she’s been putting up such great numbers,” Hiser said. “She likes to drive really strong to the right block and shoot with her right hand. So we had to make sure we were cutting her off from that.”
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Dady scored no field goals and just one point.
Hiser starred on both ends of the floor. She has a knack for finding the right spot to be on offense.
“At halftime I told her, ‘I think it’s going in when you shoot,” Tipp coach Brett Kopp said. “And we all think that … We have eight or nine players that can score.”
Hiser scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half.
The plurality of threats on offense provides a ‘pick your poison” scenario for defenses.
You can throw your resources at sophomore Mader, a 6’0’ all-state guard who leads the MVL in scoring by a mile. But you’ll leave open perimeter threats like Morgan Sessions and Mady Turner. Or you can play them straight up, and leave someone on an island against the best 1v1 scorer most Tipp opponents will face this season.
Mader scored a game-leading 15 points, seven below her average due to an inspired effort by freshman Aviator Alexa Moeller to keep the ball out of her hands. But Turner added nine points, and Sessions scored six on a pair of threes. Their B+ offensive play more than sufficed.
And speaking of multiple threats, seemingly every Red Devil had at least a takeaway or two. When Sessions or Turner didn’t swipe the ball from a guard, Hiser or Courtney Post usually reclaimed it in the post before it took flight. The weak link to attack in the defense simply didn’t exist. When Butler did get a shot up, it was always only one shot. Tipp’s rebounding committee outplayed Dady, who usually reels in double-digit boards on her own.
All this…and Abbi Mader still managed to score during the opening moments of the second half. Tipp handed Butler its second loss of the season.
In the first four minutes, the casual observer might’ve thought it’d be a slugfest Butler could win. Three minutes in, it was 0-0. Four minutes in, Butler led 2-0. But if a tie can be a blowout, the lengthy nil-nil tie qualifies as exactly. Tipp started 0/4 from three in that span. Not good, but unlikely to maintain. Meanwhile, Butler struggled to even put a shot up without turning the ball over. And that trend stuck for four quarters.
“We told them coming in that this is a tough place to shoot,” Kopp said. “When I was in school, or two years ago for them, or tonight, it doesn’t matter; it’s just not an easy place. It’s a different background for them to shoot.”
Mader hit two quick buckets to give Tipp a lead. Butler made a free throw, but that 5-3 deficit was the last it saw of Tipp before air traffic control called in and grounded the Aviators’ flight for good.
Turner scored in the lane, unknowingly sparking an 18-0 run featuring five different scorers.
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Moeller scored Butler’s lone second-quarter basket after about eight minutes of scorelessness. She accounted for seven of Butler’s 15 points and three of its four field goals.
The second half brought no changes whatsoever. Tipp hit top speed and put it in cruise control, allowing zero field goals in the fourth quarter on the way to a 51-15 win.
The Aviators turn the page to a home rematch with West Carrollton on Friday. They dominated the first bout 64-30 in the season opener.
As bitter as the Tipp sweep must taste, there’s plenty to drink for the half-glass-full crowd. They’re 10-2, (8-2 MVL). They play five of their last eight league games at home, and the three road opponents combine for a 7-28 record.
Meanwhile, the Lady Red Devils surely feel like they’re walking through green pastures and beside still waters. They’ve been nowhere near the valley of the shadow of death since a close win at Versailles over a month ago.
Tippecanoe stands at least two games above every MVL team, and has a dominant win over all of them, except for Greenville (5-5, 5-3) which they play for the first time on Saturday.
“We wanted to prove we’re the best team in the MVL right now,” Mader said. “And we wanted to make sure everybody knows that.”
Message sent, message received.
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