BBCC women turn back Knights

WENATCHEE - The Lady Vikings jumped out to a 30-14 lead at the half, then held on to beat Wenatchee Valley Community College (WVCC), 55-47 on the road Saturday.

"We came out very strong and went up by 12 points within the first five minutes of the game," coach Preston Wilks said. "Their gym was packed and their baseball team was dressed in black and cheering very loud. It was great to see how the girls quieted those guys down so quickly."

BBCC held a double-digit lead at intermission, but Wilks felt his team needed to stay focused if they expected to come away with a win against a talented Knight squad.

"I knew we would have to shoot better the second half than we did in the first," he said. "We came out and scored the first 5 points and pushed our lead to 21 points.  The lead turned out to be an amazing cushion to help catch our fall over the next 10 minutes when we gave up the big lead as we failed to score only two free throws during that stretch." 

WVCC pulled within 2 points with about five minutes to go, but the Lady Vikings regained their composure and heated up offensively to pull way from the Knights.

"Their crowd was as loud as they had been all night," Wilks said. " I was sure proud of the way the ladies settled down and began hitting shot after shot down the stretch. We scored 15 points over the last 5 minutes and made some key free throws when we needed to. We got out of there with a 8-point win, which is quite an accomplishment to beat the No. 7 ranked team on the road."

Wilks said he thought full-court pressure on WVCC was key in the win.

"It generated 24 turnovers," he said. "When you compare that to our 10 turnovers, that is how we really won the game as we came out on top in the total number of possessions."

 Despite the big win, Wilks said the team has room for improvement.

"We need to get better at a couple of things ... one is to hit our free throws in games like we do in practice," he said. "We are really looking at how we focus and concentrate at certain periods throughout the game too. We have given up a couple of big leads lately, and we need to improve our focus and keep it at a heightened state when we get up on teams."

Ali Winters and Cristina Marlatt led the offensive attack for the Lady Vikings with 11 points each. Hannah Smith added 9, Sierra Zollinger had 8, Jessica Sorensen knocked down 7, Shaylyn Brown, 6, Jazlyn Nielsen, 2, and Shanelle Hemmert finished with 1 point.

The victory over the Knights moves BBCC into a four-way tie for second place at 2-1 in East Division league play in the NWAACC, and 12-5 overall.

The Lady Vikings are at home for two games this weekend. BBCC hosts Blue Mountain Community College Friday at 6 p.m., and Treasure Valley Community College Saturday at 2 p.m.