Lady Vikings finish non-conference slate with loss
MOSES LAKE — Their non-conference record may not be as gaudy as recent years past, but Big Bend Community College women’s basketball coach Preston Wilks will take it just the same, thank you.
The Lady Vikings fell 71-62 Saturday night at the Peter DeVries Activity Center to North Idaho College to move to 7-5 on the season heading into the opener of their Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) schedule.
“I told the girls that I felt the purpose of the pre season this year was to have a schedule that got us ready for our league,” Wilks said. “The intent was to play tougher teams than we had in the past and we did. If you look at four of our five losses they are against ranked NWAACC teams and of course North Idaho is ranked 20th in the nation in the recent (National Junior College Athletic Association) poll.”
North Idaho started off the game Saturday in a zone defense allowing Big Bend to jump out to an early lead behind their trademark outside shooting.
Once North Idaho figured out that a man-to-man defense would benefit their hopes of winning, the visitors from Coeur d’Alene turned the tide and built a 42-32 halftime lead.
Big Bend shot 55 percent from the three-point line in the first half, but only 38 percent from the field.
In the second half the Cardinals (13-2) blew out to a 57-38 lead before the Lady Vikings buckled down.
“We could have easily folded against a nationally-ranked team but we played really good defense and got it down to five points,” Wilks said. “Our girls really battled and showed they could play with a good team like that and I was really proud of them.”
Big Bend trimmed the margin down to 64-59 before North Idaho managed to finally pull away.
“Bottom line is, that was a good team we were playing against,” Wilks said. “North Idaho beat the numbers one, six, and eight teams in the NWAACC by bigger or the same margins that we lost to them. So I was pleased with the result.”
Big Bend’s comeback bid was stymied by a 2-for-10 second half shooting performance behind the arc.
According to Wilks’ the team did, however, improve in eliminating turnovers, something that has been an Achilles heel for his squad this season.
“What I am pleased with is that we have done a lot better job at better minimizing our turnovers,” Wilks said. “We only had 14 tonight. I felt really good with our decision making and taking care of the ball.”
Dana Bates led the Lady Vikings with 16 points, while Kendra Schwulst chipped in with 11 points.
Alia Parker recorded a team-high six rebounds for Big Bend.
With their team’s NWAACC opener approaching against the Community College of Spokane on Saturday at Big Bend, Wilks hopes to address his team’s odd shooting anomaly.
“We need to work on our shot selection a bit better,” Wilks said. “Our two-point field-goal percentage is lower than it has been in recent years and sometimes has been worse than our three-point shooting. We need to take higher percentage shots. We also need to get better on defense and get the stops when we need a big stop.”