Falcons Notch One Of State’s Biggest Upsets In Sectional’s Opening Round By Disposing Of No. 10 Tippy Valley
On Tuesday night, John Glenn’s boys basketball team played like a team on a mission and certainly one that was prepared to avenge an earlier-season loss to 10th-ranked Tippecanoe Valley.
The Falcons’ 13-point win over the Vikings was one of the state’s biggest upsets in the opening round of sectionals.
As a result of the 68-55 win in the Knox Sectional, the 14-10 Falcons advance to face 2-20 Bremen, a team they beat by 30 points last month.
Glenn’s victory over Tippy was the only upset of a top 10 team in Class 3A on the tournament’s opening night. In fact, it was one of only two upsets over top 10 teams in the state, period. The other one was 2A No. 4 South Spencer’s 58-56 loss to North Posey.
In this state at this time of the year upsets are the norm, right? After all, that’s why they call the nation’s best high school tournament Hoosier Hysteria.
Glenn certainly did its part to contribute to Indiana high school basketball lore, providing some hysteria of its own.
The Falcons were good at the start and at the finish, and really good in the third quarter.
By no means was this a fluke of any sort.
Tippy was a team that came into the game having lost just five times on the season including a pair to 4A teams and its only two losses since we welcomed in 2023 were to the top two teams in 3A – Northwood and Marian.
The Falcons took it to their opponent from the outset, leading by 10 with just over two minutes to go in the opening quarter.
Tippy rallied to tie the game at 24 at halftime.
The Vikings might have gone into the dressing room thinking they had weathered the Falcon fury, but the underdogs played some of their best basketball of the season in the third frame to take control.
Glenn outscored Tippy 20-7 in the third quarter as star senior Brycen Hannah netted eight third-quarter points and reserve Carson Krueger chipped in five.
Trailing by double digits, first-year Viking coach Joe Luce figured his team’s best strategy was to start fouling early and often in the fourth quarter. That it did.
Get this … Glenn shot 23 free throws in the final eight minutes and hit 16 of them. Game over. Upset complete. Falcons moving on.
For the game, the Falcons were 21-of-30 from the charity stripe.
Hannah went 7-of-8 from the foul line to finish with a team-high 21 points, 17 coming in the second half.
Classmate Noah Dreibelbeis was equally as important on this night. The guard scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half, including seven in the final eight minutes.
Dreibelbeis’ layup with 2:25 to play in the third quarter put his team up 40-29.
For the remaining 10:25 of the game, Glenn would lead by double digits.
Junior Chase Miller came through, too, contributing 11 points, nine in the second half.
And perhaps the most important player to step up when his team needed him most was Krueger. He buried three triples in the first three quarters and finished with a career-high 11 points.
How big were Krueger’s threes? Well considering Tippy connected on seven three-pointers, Krueger’s outside-shooting prowess came at an opportune time. He was the only Falcon to hit from beyond the arc.
After the game, Glenn head coach Travis Hannah admitted he didn’t mind not getting a bye in the sectional and, in fact, liked playing on opening night even against the sectional favorite.
No pressure.
You see Glenn had to feel really good about the newly realigned sectionals..
At least for the next couple of years, the Falcons don’t have to navigate through the likes of Mishawaka Marian or South Bend St. Joe to win a sectional championship, something they’ve had to do it seems like forever.
Even last year with arguably one of the best, if not the best, Glenn teams ever, the Falcons lost a heartbreaker in the sectional championship to Marian.
Remember Glenn hasn’t won a sectional title in boys baskeball since 2005, and that was as a member of 2A. It has never won a 3A sectional, but did win sectionals in 1989 and 1991 when the tournament was single class (it also won a 2A sectional in 2001).
Assuming it takes care of business tomorrow against the Lions, Glenn will have a shot at winning that coveted sectional crown against the winner of the Knox/Culver Academy game.
Considering the way Hannah’s team played to open the sectional, the Falcons’ chances are as good as any to cut down the nets come Saturday night. Wouldn’t that be something for the program and for one of its best players of all time in Brycen Hannah?
First things first, though, right coach?
One game at a time, but there’s no question Glenn’s win over one of the better teams in 3A opened more than a few eyes and put the Falcons in a position to end the sectional-title drought in Walkerton.
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