Big Bend teams wrap up season's first half

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Taking part in the Clark College Men's Basketball Invitational, the Big Bend Vikings wrapped up the first half of their schedule with a fourth-place finish and a 2-1 record this week.

The tournament, that ran Monday through Wednesday, saw the Vikings open up play with a narrow 80-77 loss to Chemeketa CC on the opening day of play.

Big Bend led 38-28 at the end of the first half but were hurt by the hot shooting of Chemeketa who hit a blistering 53 percent of their shots to roar back for the win.

Hayes Garrity led Big Bend with 23 points while Blake Skidmore ended his first game following the Christmas break with 20 points.

Big Bend also received 12 points and 12 rebounds from Ben Olayinka.

A key contributor in the loss was Big Bend being outshot 29-5 from the free throw line while being outscored by 18 points via charity tosses.

So sent into the consolation bracket, the Vikings made the most of their opportunity to get back on track.

On Tuesday, Big Bend (8-3) let another double-digit lead slip after halftime as North Seattle CC came back from a 46-35 deficit. 

However, the Vikings had just enough in the tank to avoid another meltdown and held on for an 81-80 win.

The victory came despite NSCC shooting 61 percent from the field in a sloppy game that saw both teams combine for 44 turnovers.

Garrity led Big Bend with 29 points while Skidmore added 26 points. Garrity his five of his team's 11 treys. Spencer Pingel added 12 points, which included three three-pointers.

Then on the last night of the tournament, the Vikings finally shook off the close-game-itis and roared to an 90-56 win over Umpqua Valley CC to capture the consolation title and fourth place overall in the tournament.

Big Bend built a 49-26 halftime lead and this time kept the heat on in recording the win.

Matt Stanger and Pingel each scored 20 points to lead Big Bend, while Olayinka added 15 points and 13 rebounds and Garrity finished with 13 points and five assists.

Big Bend outrebounded Umpqua 47-36 and forced 19 turnovers while committing only 10 themselves.

Lady Vikings go

1-2 in Edmonds

EDMONDS - An inconsistent run at the Edmonds Winter Tournament led to a sixth-place finish for the Big Bend Lady Vikings this week.

The Lady Vikings (7-5) recorded a 66-57 win on Tuesday, following their opening round 89-83 loss to the hosts the previous evening.

In the opening defeat, Big Bend led by 12 at halftime only to see the hosts roar back for the win in overtime.

"We had them on the ropes in the second half with a 15-point lead late but that is when EVCC went into what I call the "caged animal" mode," Big Bend head coach Preston Wilks said. "From there we couldn't contain them on defense.  They got back into it and we missed a couple of really good looks on our last few possessions that would have won it for us in regulation."

Big Bend got 17 points from Ali Nielsen and 13 point from Brin Neff as the Lady Vikings were hurt by 23 turnovers while they were outrebounded 49-33.

"Our decision making wasn't the best on offense and we had quite a few turnovers in the last 10 minutes of the game," Wilks said. "Credit goes to EVCC, as they've been playing with a skeleton crew all year, but they got all of their players back for this tourney and I believe they have a great shot at being a tournament team out of the North."

Wilks' crew bounced back with the win against Centrailia but no stats were made available by the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC).

Big Bend led by 17 points in the second half but this time held off a rally.

"It was great to see our kids play hard after that heart-breaker loss the day before," Wilks said. "Coming into this tourney, we had the third best team free throw percentage in the NWAACC, but we really struggled most of this game. We were below 50 percent going into the last few minutes of the game."

Despite their struggles, Big Bend was able to hit all six free throw attempts down the stretch to hold on for the win.

In Wednesday night's consolation final Vancouver Island CC also came back against Big Bend, making up a seven-point halftime deficit to win 72-65.

Big Bend shot only 37 percent from the field.

They were led by Ali Nielsen's 16 points and eight rebounds and Neff's 15 points, while Moses Lake High alum Chayla Hirz finished with 11 points.

Nielsen was named to the all-tournament team.

"The ladies are staying positive and now know that we can compete against very good teams," Wilks said. "VIU probably should have won this tourney, but because they had a delay crossing the border on Monday, they had to forfeit their first game which put them into the consolation bracket with us.  But I was elated to have the chance to play this team."