Lady Vikings blow out Northwest Indian College

MOSES LAKE - The Big Bend Community College (BBCC) Lady Vikings saw four players score in double figures and used a 49-26 second half to easily defeat Northwest Indian College, 78-50.

Guard Elizabeth Larrew lead the Vikings with 17 points and added six rebounds.

"I think that what we learned tonight is we're pretty effective when we're first playing great defense and we're rotating, getting our rotations down and then we're boxing out," head coach Preston Wilks said. "That allows us to get up and down in our transition game and our transition game has been our strength in our scrimmages so far and it was obviously our strength in the second half."

In the first half, the Lady Eagles were able to draw fouls and limit fast breaks for BBCC. NWIC was able to hang around due to the Lady Vikings inability to get quality shots in the half court. BBCC shot just over 33 percent from the field in the first half and shot a dismal 28.6 percent from the three-point line,

After NWIC was able to cut the Viking lead to five entering halftime, BBCC took advantage of its transition opportunities and built a lead that ballooned to as high as 32 points.

"It was like a three-point ball game in the second half, like 29-26 I think," Wilks said. "From there we just kind of blew the roof off the building there and exploded for 49 points in the second half. What we saw tonight is that our transition game's got to be clicking for us to be real successful I think."

A point of emphasis Wilks made to his team at half was to cut down on fouling. NWIC guards Jolene Nagy and Sara Carle were able to get the Viking defense out of position and combined for 14 free throw attempts out of the team's 25. However, the Lady Eagles were unable to take advantage shooting only 68 percent from the charity stripe.

"We don't want to foul 'cause on a team like this our goal is to run and get out and run and our actual transition game will create our shots for us," Wilks said. "But if you're fouling it's stopping the game, you can't get out and run."

With the absence of last year's leading scorer Alli Winters, the Lady Vikings were able to get contributions from a variety of players. Big Bend's bench was a key factor in the game, outscoring NWIC's 42-4. Guards McKell Marlor and Riley Jemmett provided a spark with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Forward Tasha Huff also added 11 points off the bench.

Wilks thought that going into the season his team could struggle rebounding the ball, and his suspicions were confirmed Saturday. The Vikings were outrebounded 47-42 by NWIC. Forward Jessica Sorensen lead the Vikings with seven rebounds, while Larrew and Marlor added six each.

"I don't think we did a great job tonight for rebounding," Wilks said. "We're going to have to figure out a way to rebound a little bit better than we did tonight."

BBCC was without guard Shanelle Hemmert against NWIC after she suffered a knee sprain in practice. Wilks hopes she will make her season debut against Mt. Hood Community College Nov. 23.

Wilks will look to improve his team's defense and its ability to play hard without fouling going into Saturday's game.

"Sometimes we play so hard in practice we get after each other," he said. "Maybe I'm going to have to start calling more fouls from the sideline as I'm coaching and I definitely will do that to clean it up a little bit."