Second half struggles doom Lady Vikings
MOSES LAKE — Teams that tend to challenge for championships in any sport usually believe that the defense never rests.
On Wednesday night at the Peter DeVries Activity Center the Big Bend Community College Lady Vikings took that manta quite seriously for the first twenty minutes of their game against Columbia Basin College.
Leading 20-18 at halftime, the Lady Vikings were 20 minutes away from moving into a coveted top four spot in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) East Division.
Instead they were outside looking in following a suprising 63-48 defeat.
“We had a defensive let down in the second half while our offense was still struggling,” Big Bend coach Preston Wilks said. “Bottom line is we couldn’t keep them off the offensive glass. We had to keep them off to glass and unfortunately we couldn’t do it. CBC was also working their tail off and we couldn’t stop them.”
In the first half, both defenses played stingy ball as the two teams combined to shoot a combined 25 percent from the field as Big Bend (10-8, 3-3) held on to the two-point lead.
But in the second half the visiting Hawks exploded with 45 points on 42 percent shooting which was helped by 10 offensive rebounds.
“It was tough defensive game on both sides in the first half,” Wilks said. “It was pretty much a slugfest in there and we played perfect defense even though we were struggling on offense. I said if we played defense like that in the second half we would be okay. The second half ended up being a different story.”
It sure did when it came to the Big Bend offense which shot 26 percent in both halves and couldn’t cut the gap any closer than 48-44 on a Chayla Hirz basket with 4:07 left.
The Hawks would finish the game on a 15-4 run and seal the win on 12-for-16 free throw shooting.
CBC (12-5, 4-2) took the lead with multiple put backs and inside shots as the Hawks post players scored in various one-on-one situations.
“It was by design that we would isolate in the post one-on-one,” Wilks said. “We just have to work on bodying them out of there and get better position. Our post defense hasn’t been hurting us during the season but tonight it really did. They scored 44 of their 63 points from their four bigs. That’s pretty tough.”
As the Hawks points kept flowing the Lady Vikings’ offensive game slowed and many shots fell short as the deficit grew larger.
“What happened was we weren’t hitting our shots and we tightened up,” Wilks said. “There’s not a lot you can do at that point and it snow-balled from there and we couldn’t get anything going.”
Big Bend was led by Dana Bates’s 17 points while shooting six-for-18 from the field. She also collected 11 rebounds.
Alexandria Canfield was next up in the scoring column with eight for the Lady Vikings, who committed 15 turnovers while being outrebounded 63-36.
Caitlin Dill (14 points 12 rebounds), Jorie Freeman (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Trishi Williams (12 points, 10 rebounds) led the Hawks.
Now the Lady Vikings are a half-game out of the top four East Division spots, in fifth-place behind Treasure Valley Community College who beat Big Bend 74-54 on Saturday.
“We’re going to have to protect our home court,” Wilks said. “The secret to getting to the tournament is protect your home court and steal a couple on the road. We have to make sure to not let any more slip. We’re going to need a winning league record to be in the top four because 7-7 won’t get it done.”
Saturday the Lady Vikings travel to the NWAACC’s No. 2 ranked team Walla Walla Community College (16-1) with tip off set for 4 p.m.