Opener gets defensive in Lady Vikings' win over Spokane
Alan Dale/Columbia Basin Herald<br> Big Bend’s Alicia Nordby looks for help against the CC of Spokane's defense on Saturday. The Lady Vikings won 58-48.
MOSES LAKE — With their shots missing the mark, the Big Bend Lady Vikings relied on the tried-and-usually-true method of ensuring a win:
A serious dose of in-your-face defense.
Big Bend used the formula to grind out a 58-48 win Saturday over the Community College of Spokane in both teams’ Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) opener.
“It was all about defense and I was pretty happy with how we came out and played super hard,” Lady Vikings coach Preston Wilks said. “We held them to 22 points below their average. It was all about defense, all about heart, and a great team defensive effort.”
Big Bend was led by Dana Bates who scored 22 points and 11 rebounds and Kendra Schwulst chipped in with 11 points.
But it was the defense that made the greatest impression as they held Spokane (8-4, 0-1), the NWAACC’s No. 5 team, to 32 percent shooting from the field and a paltry 25 percent from the three-point line.
“We did a good job preparing for this game as a staff and as a team and we really felt it was going to be how we approached our defensive and rebounding efforts,” Wilks said. “We didn’t have a great shooting game either but our girls didn’t focus on that like in the past when we wouldn’t be hot. We turned our focus away from missing shots to sealing the deal on the defensive end of the floor.”
Spokane cut a late Big Bend 46-33 lead down to 46-38 and later down to 52-48 before finally falling short.
Wilks said that the Lady Vikings (8-5, 1-0) have suffered a few poor shooting games of late but the squad has worked progressively harder each game to make up for their clanks with defensive intensity.
“I think we are maturing now and developing other strengths besides our three-point shooting,” Wilks said. “But our shooting will come around.”
The game was the first of two sponsored by the Rotary Association of Moses Lake which used both the men’s and women’s games as an opportunity to raise money for the Big Bend Community College Foundation scholarship.