Big Bend opens league play with 20-point win
MOSES LAKE - Good shooting can be contagious.
A player gets one shot to go and the rest fall with ease.
Big Bend Community College (BBCC) opened league play on fire hitting three-pointers in bunches and jumped out to a 14-0 against Yakima Valley to start the game.
"We like to penetrate and kick to our open shooters and our open shooters were just determined," head coach Preston Wilks said. "Our kids felt good and our shooters felt good and (Cristina Marlatt) was getting them some open looks... It was a great start, a great way to go. That's what you need, you need a run to put a team down."
The Vikings saw four players reach double figures and maintained a double-digit lead for most of the game before putting the Yaks away for good with a late run. Big Bend walked away with resounding 85-65 win in its first Northwest Athletic Associated of Community Colleges (NWAACC) East region game.
"It's important that we make sure we take care of any game at home," Wilks said. "That's one of our goals this year is to protect our home court and to make sure we play well in front of the home crowd and show them what we're capable of."
The Vikings had a strong non-league schedule and are now 1-0 in what figures to be an extremely competitive East region. Columbia Basin and Blue Mountain are currently ranked second and third, respectively, in the current Joward Power Poll. The Vikings are close behind in the seventh spot with an overall record of 11-4.
Columbia Basin is ranked first in the latest NWAACC Coaches Poll, while Blue Mountain sits in fourth. Big Bend is unranked in the coaches poll, but has received some votes.
"Like we told them, welcome to league," he said. "A 20-point win in the East region just doesn't happen very often it doesn't matter who it is. Whether it's the top team or the bottom team. So, to look up and see all of a sudden we won by 20 we were happy with that outcome."
One area Wilks felt the team could have played better on was defense. Yakima Valley used the length and size of its wing and post players to bother the Vikings at times. The Yaks only shot 35.3 percent for the game, but Wilks felt players like Carlee Creager and Myleah Musgrave saw too many open looks.
"(Creager) was a hard matchup, she'll be a hard matchup for everybody in the league," he said. "(Musgrave) came off the bench, she's kind of got some length, some speed. We knew that she liked to drive and in the first half we didn't do what we wanted to on her... We knew what she wanted to do yet we didn't stop her."
Wilks was able to counter the scoring of Musgrave by sticking freshman guard/forward Sam Orme on her and denying her the ball. Musgrave only scored five points in the second half.
Big Bend saw four Vikings score double-digits and each player made at least one field goal against the Yaks. Freshman guard Aubrie Vale led the team with 18 points while grabbing seven rebounds.
Freshmen guards Elizabeth Larrew and Riley Jemmett added 15 points and 13 points, respectively, while sophomore forward Jessica Sorensen scored 14 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.
"We're a balanced team this year, we've been saying that from the very beginning," Wilks said.
Sophomore guard Cristina Marlatt, who had been dealing with an illness earlier in the week, dished a game-high 10 assists.
The Vikings continue East region play at home 2 p.m. Saturday against Wenatchee Valley. Wilks said the team needs to work on boxing out before Saturday's game against the Knights.
"This team tonight pretty athletic, but we gave up too many offensive rebounds," he said. "I think against Wenatchee we're going to have to that, figure out a way to box them out a little bit better and keep them off the offensive glass."