Vikings record 'pressure' win in opener

MOSES LAKE — It was a case of pressure, on top of pressure, on top of more pressure.

All that pressure meant one thing for the Big Bend Vikings’ basketball team — a 96-92 win Saturday over the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC)’s No. 5 team the Community College of Spokane, at the Peter DeVries Activity Center.

The Vikings (6-3, 1-0) won their NWAACC opener by relentlessly pressuring the Spokane guards who clearly have aversions to anyone getting in their face or pressuring their dribble.

“That was the difference in the game — our defensive pressure,” Big Bend coach Mark Poth said. “Spokane shot the ball really well but we just outscored them on points off of turnovers and offensive putbacks. Our whole game was to be disruptive and take them out of the things they wanted to do and the difference was our pressure.”

The Vikings outscored Spokane (10-4, 0-1) 36-7 in the points-off-of-turnovers category and 39-19 in second chance points.

Even though Spokane shot 53 percent from the field and 52 percent from behind the arc — making 15 threes — Big Bend took 21 more shots from the floor during the course of the game. Think the Seahawks allowing Payton Manning on the field for 10 of 60 minutes of play.

“Our pressure on the guards was the difference and not many teams play that type of pressure like we do during the course of the year,” Poth said of the Vikings’ defensive presence baseline to baseline. “When anybody gets 22 steals…and force 26 turnovers to nine you get 17 more possessions at least and that makes a huge difference.”

The up-tempo Vikings committed a season-low nine turnovers.

“We took care of the basketball and we play uptempo and have a lot of possessions,” Poth said. “Nine turnovers is about as good as you can expect especially when we are close to 20 a game. That’s a significant improvement. I think it was one of those nights where our guys were really focused and  we didn’t force things.”

Big Bend was led by Jeff Ranstrom who scored 25 points and snared 13 rebounds.

Dominic Brumfield had 19 points, William Winn had 14 points, and Alan Marsh chipped in with 13 points for Big Bend which shot 44 percent for the game despite hitting only 8-of-28 three-point shots.

Big Bend also outrebounded Spokane 43-32.

Spokane was led by Zach Humphrey who scored 29 points, including eight three-pointers.

The game was the second of the day’s women’s/men’s game doubleheader that were sponsored by the Rotary Association of Moses Lake.

The association used the two games as an opportunity to raise money for the Big Bend Community College Foundation scholarship.