Tipp kept that streak intact with a 56-35 victory over Butler in the Miami Valley League game. Tipp, which went 18-0 in the league last season, hasn’t lost a MVL game since the league started play in 2019-20. The program’s last league loss came as a member of the Greater Western Ohio Conference when Trotwood-Madison beat Tipp 37-35 on Jan. 24 of 2019.
Against Butler, Tipp used its height advantage and hard-nosed defense to improve to 2-0 overall and MVL. Tipp beat Sidney 49-40 on Wednesday.
“We knew coming into the game Butler was going to be one of the top four teams we faced,” Tipp first-year coach Christina Pentaudi said. “We knew our two opening games were going to be really tough. … I think these two wins to start the season shows them the kind of season they can have.”
Tipp senior Katie Hemmelgarn’s mid-range jumper gave the Red Devils the lead for good 10 seconds into the game. Senior Rachel Wildermuth and junior Olivia Spiller knocked down three-pointers soon after to give Tipp an 8-2 lead.
Six different Red Devils scored in the first quarter that ended with Tipp leading 14-6.
Another three-pointer from Spiller with 2:45 left in the second quarter pushed Tipp’s lead to double digits, 26-14. The lead never fell below 12 points the remainder of the game.
Butler’s tallest player is junior Evan Neely, who is listed at 6-foot. The Aviators had to battle inside against a Tipp roster with four 6-footers with Hemmelgarn (6-2), Wildermuth (6-0), senior Corinn Siefring (6-0) and junior Ashley Aselage (6-0).
“When they’re in the game together that’s pretty tough because you don’t see that in the Dayton area very often,” Pentaudi said. “We emphasize get it to the mismatch wherever you can find it. I think our guards do a great job of looking for that.”
The Aviators, meanwhile, had solid looks inside but struggled to get them to fall even with two or three attempts at times.
“Honestly, we’re better than what we showed today,” Butler coach Molly Bardonaro said. “The difference today was (Tipp) hit their shots and we didn’t. There’s no excuse why we didn’t hit our shots. We were falling short. We were fading away. We were not being aggressive and going into them. We kind of let Tipp dictate what we did on the offensive end.”
Butler sophomore Sami Bardonaro, who averaged a team-high 12.6 points last season, scored 20 of the Aviators’ 35 points. Neely added nine as just four Aviators scored overall.
“(Sami) has the ability to do that,” coach Bardonaro said. “I told them in the locker room we need more than two people who are able to step up and score. You can’t beat good teams if it’s just one or two people. Normally we have some other girls who are able to hits shots. Today we were just awful shooting.”
Eight different players scored for Tipp, led by Hemmelgarn’s 12. Senior Ashleigh Mader and sophomore Hannah Wildermuth both scored 10. Siefring, Spiller and Rachel Wildermuth each added six points.
Butler was scheduled to open with Xenia on Wednesday, but that game was postponed.
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