Big Bend teams roll in Yakima

YAKIMA - It would be an understatement to say that the Big Bend

Lady Vikings really needed a win Saturday night.

BIG BEND women 65, Yakima Valley CC 62

YAKIMA - It would be an understatement to say that the Big Bend Lady Vikings really needed a win Saturday night.

Coming in off a tough stretch of play that saw them drop three of four games to fall further back out of Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) playoff consideration, the Lady Vikings did nothing at first to stem the tide in the first half of their contest against Yakima Valley Community College.

Trailing 45-29 at halftime, Big Bend stared at a four-game deficit with five games to play and little chance of being a top four team out of the East Division.

Twenty minutes later that all changed.

Behind a superior defensive effort and a 58 percent shooting performance in the second half, Big Bend stormed all the way back for a dramatic 65-62 win.

Now, Big Bend (10-11, 3-6) still can entertain hopes of a late season run and a shot at the post season.

"As soon as the buzzer sounded, the ladies grabbed each other and in jubilation," Big Bend head coach Preston Wilks said. "It was great to see, considering all that we have been through the past three weeks with the suspensions of some of our players and a couple of 40-plus point losses during that stretch.  We've had our full squad back now for the past 2 games, and we feel good again about where we are now and hope to have a strong finish to our season."

The Lady Vikings struggled to defend YVCC (14-7, 5-4) in the first half as the host shot a blistering 58 percent, making their second half drop to 25 percent even more glaring.

"We finally settled down and we started to do get that reversal against their press which resulted in several easy layups for us," Wilks said. "They got out of the press after we cut into their lead a bit.  About the same time, we called a time out and had our ladies switch to our 2-3 zone.  This proved to be the pivotal change for us, as they went ice-cold on offense and we just kept plugging away at their lead."

Big Bend overcame a 51-31 deficit early on the second half after the changes were made.

They also overcame 29 turnovers and 34-25 rebounding deficit.

Shelby Scott led Big Bend with 19 points while Brin Neff added 13 points.

Also Big Bend's depth, once again in full display with the team intact, showed its strength as their bench outscored Yakima's 39-13.

"With five games to go anything is possible with these ladies," Wilks said. "I'm excited to see what happens the next three weeks."

BIG BEND men 77, Yakima Valley CC 55

The men of Big Bend had little problem maintaining their two-game lead in the NWAACC East on Saturday at Yakima.

The second-ranked Vikings (16-4, 8-1) blew past their hosts 77-55 to keep their cushion over the College of Spokane with five games to play.

"That's a big win on the road against Yakima," Vikings head coach Mark Poth said. "I was pleased with our execution and effort on both end of the floor. We had a solid effort by all our players."

Due to a computer error the statistics from the game were not available.