Outside shooting the difference in Big Bend's loss to Multnomah JV

MOSES LAKE — The proficient outside shooting of Multnomah JV in the first quarter surprised even head coach Demetrius McQuarn.

So of course Big Bend was caught off guard.

“It definitely snuck up on us, but you’ve got to figure it out after about three or four makes,” head coach Preston Wilks said. “There’s no way they get seven in one quarter. The NBA doesn’t even do that and we allowed that tonight here with a JV team.”

Ana Wakefield scored a game-high 31 points with five three-pointers and the Lions erased a three-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Big Bend 76-66.

The Vikings came all the way back from down 24-9 in the first quarter to lead 62-59 in the fourth quarter. However, the Lions put together an 8-0 run to take the lead for good and closed the game on a 17-4 run.

Turnovers and lax defense plagued Big Bend in the first quarter, allowing Multnomah to step into rhythm outside shots. Wakefield made four from the outside in the first 10 minutes to go with two makes by Kayla Hyppolite and another shot three steps behind the three-point arc from Sadie Jenks.

“It definitely surprised us,” sophomore guard Maddie Williams said. “But also we didn’t do enough to really shut it down until the third quarter. Once we figured out that they could actually shoot I think we did a good job at doing better at trying to shut them down and stuff.”

Williams came off the bench to score a team-high 16 points. Her energy allowed the Vikings to mount a rally when their offense became stagnant.

With 3:33 left in the third quarter and just two points to show for it, Williams scored five quick points and dished an assist to Reinnee Rockett. Williams continued her explosive play with nine straight points to open the fourth quarter, cutting the Vikings’ deficit to five points.

“Last year I had to come off the bench and do that and this year it’s kind of the same thing,” she said. “I just like coming out and doing it again. If my team needed me I wanted to do it so I was ready.”

After Williams’ burst, sophomore Maryah Tipping scored six straight points in the paint to give Big Bend its first lead 60-59. Tipping and fellow forward Madison Wilcox combined for 24 points and 19 rebounds.

It was a combination Wilks tried to go to often.

“We were trying to and I think Maryah had our best field goal percentage tonight,” he said. “Missed a few gimmes, but the goal was just to keep pounding it inside, keep pounding it inside and unfortunately we didn’t finish all those, but at times when we did you could see how easy it was.”