Lady Vikings lose first game of the season at the free throw line

MOSES LAKE — After having a number of preseason games canceled, the Lady Vikes Basketball Program finally got their opportunity to gauge where they were at, as they faced off versus an Eastern Region opponent, Blue Mountain Community College. Coming off of a 15-13 record in the 2022-23 season, BBCC hoped to start off on the right foot. 

Big Bend Community College struggled shooting all night but found themselves leading the Timberwolves 22-20 at halftime. Unfortunately, the shooting struggles came back to bite the Vikings as the game progressed. Only shooting 33% from the floor along with 27% from beyond the arc made it an uphill battle most of the night, but the game was decided by a single point from the free throw line. The Lady Vikes shot 14-30 from the charity stripe which cost them their season opener as they fell to the Timberwolves by a score of 53-52.

Aquinna Riggles was the leading scorer for BBCC as she dropped 13 points on 4-9 shooting, draining three of six from behind the arc while collecting six steals. The rest of the scoring was spread out as 8 of the 9 Lady Vikings managed to make their way onto the score sheet in the loss. 

 "We came out super amped for this game and missed quite a few "gimme" shots that we should have finished. We played aggressively offensively and were rewarded with 30 trips to the free throw line, but first-game jitters got the best of us as we only made 14 and left 16 points on the line. We also were so eager to make a play that we ended up turning the ball over more than we want to. Consequently, we couldn't generate our game goal of 80 points," said BBCC Head Coach Preston Wilks.

After a tough loss, BBCC faced off versus Northwest University JV on Nov. 18, hoping to get their first win out of the way. Coming off of a tough shooting night, BBCC knew what they had to do. 

However, the shooting struggles continued as the Vikings shot 30% from the floor and 13% from beyond the arc. Although they were much better from the free throw line, shooting 75%, the struggles from the floor proved costly as they could not keep up with the Northwest University JV offense. 

BBCC dropped their second straight game by a score of 67-53.

Kali Kast was the leading scorer for BBCC in the second game, dropping 11 points on 4-12 shooting paired with 7 rebounds, 3 steals and one block. Amaya Rogers, Brooklyn Hulet and Katie Hansen followed up Kast's performance scoring 9 points each. 

"We came out flat after the disappointing 1-point loss from our home opener the night prior. We got behind early and had to play from behind the entire game. We played much better and we actually outscored them in the second half, but we were only ever able to get their lead down to 10 points. The NW University JV team was a tough team as they had a skilled post and several dynamic guards on their squad. Several of them were juniors on that team so we were running up against seasoned vets and they used that experience to make some great plays against us," Wilks said.

After a tough opening weekend, the Lady Vikes understand that the season is a marathon, not a sprint along with the fact that they have to take it one step at a time. 

"We know that with an entire team of freshmen, that our season will be one of nightly and weekly improvements throughout the season. We did play well the final 17 minutes of the second half on Saturday. We are confident that we made progress and got better than we were on Friday.”

The Lady Vikings are off the remainder of this week and will return to the court to practice Monday. Their next game is set for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in a non-region contest against Spokane Falls Community College.