Head coach Aaron Wolfe and the NorthWood bench watch patiently as the Panthers get back on defense. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

ROCHESTER – It is a well-known saying in sports that the “cream will rise to the top” in any given game. On Friday night the NorthWood Panthers were the cream of the crop and they showed it in the second half. The Panthers would hold Tippecanoe Valley to just 18 second-half points to claim a 58-43 victory in the opening game of The Winning Edge Holiday Tournament in a rematch of the 2013 Class 3A Sectional Championship.

It was simply a game of two halves for the Vikings. Valley did nearly everything right in the first half. The Vikings won the rebound battle and controlled the tempo which helped them carve out a 25-21 lead at the half. Valley clearly had the upper hand over 3A’s No. 10 team heading into the third quarter, but everything the Vikings did right in the first half, they failed to do correctly in the second half.

The Panthers executed better and were more physical in the second half and it showed. The battle on the boards and the turnover battle went to NorthWood and the tempo was overwhelmingly controlled by the Panthers as well. Losing control of the tempo is what Viking head coach Bill Patrick saw as the biggest problem in his team’s loss.

“We let them control the tempo in the second half,” said Patrick. “We controlled it in the first half but we let them play their game in the second half. I don’t think this was a case where NorthWood just beat us, I think we beat ourselves.”

Tanner Andrews was huge for the Vikings in the two opening quarters, leading his team with 10 points. But the senior was invisible on the scoreboard in the second half. Though Andrews finished with just 10 points, he did reach a milestone by eclipsing the 1,000-point mark for his career.

Another player that was night and day for the game was NorthWood’s Jonathan Wilkinson. Wilkinson scored just two points in the firs half but would finish as the game’s leading scorer with 23 points on the night. Wilkinson’s big points came from the charity stripe as he hit 13 of 14 free throw attempts in the third and fourth quarters.

For NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe, his team accepted a challenge at half time and that is what made the difference in the end.

“We came out with more energy and enthusiasm,” Wolfe stated. “In a game with two pretty even teams, I felt that was the difference.”

This was the fifth meeting in the past three years for these two teams and all signs point to the two teams meeting in the sectional again this year. Coach Patrick knows both teams have the talent to meet again, he just hopes his team can avoid beating itself if and when it sees NorthWood again.

“NorthWood is a very good team,” said Patrick. “They are a team that can really do well in the state tournament this year, but, hopefully we will have something to say about that in the sectional.”

NorthWood (6-0) will take on another sectional opponent in Fairfield as the tournament heads north to Nappanee for the consolation and championship games. The Falcons beat Rochester 71-59 in the second game of Friday’s opening round. Valley (4-2) will tip-off against the Zebras at 6 p.m. in the consolation game with the championship game to follow at approximately 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s games will take place at NorthWood High School.