Breana Peterson found a seam in the Falcons’ defense and went up for a jump shot. Breana is the only freshman on the varsity, and although she’s not a starter, she gets minutes coming off of the bench.
One of the biggest reasons the Vikings girls’ basketball team was so successful last year was, despite a lack of height, their quickness, tenacious rebounding, tough defense and ability to score easy baskets off of takeaways made them tough to beat.
Fast forward to 2010-2011 and not much has changed. The Vikes’ tallest player is 5’ 9” but the team still rebounds like crazy and still plays a smothering defense. The results? Lots of steals and easy baskets. An easy formula if you have the athletes to do it. And the Vikings have those kids, as Albrook will attest.
Head coach T.J. Super was happy for the win, but added, “For a first game, it was just okay.”
The Vikings played the Albrook Falcons last Tuesday at home and the game was all but over after the first ten minutes. Behind their smothering defense and aggressive rebounding for second attempts at shots, the Vikings were able to amass 41 points by halftime. They led 41-21 at that juncture and scored 28 second-half points while holding their opponents to a measly 10 for the final period.
Kaitlynn Linnell went up for a two point shot against Albrook last Tuesday night. Although she didn’t score on this play, her scrappy play contributed to the Vikings 69-31 win over the Falcons.
“I thought we played well in our half court defense, but our press really broke down. That’s going to happen when you’re putting in new girls,” said Super.
One sign that things went well is that even though they didn’t shoot well, they still tallied a lot of points.
“We executed well on offense but couldn’t hit our shots. I guess that’s one sign that we’ve come along way. A couple of years ago if we would have had a terrible shooting night, we would have been lucky to have scored 40 points. Now, we can have an off night and still nearly score 70 points,” Super said.
Leading the way for the Vikings was Ashley Deschampe, who scored 20 points. Nine of Ashley’s points came on threepoint shots. Other players who scored included Ailee Larson, 13 points; Taylor Ryden, ten points; Theresa Morrin, eight points; Brea Boomer, ten points; Molly Zafft, six points, and Ali Iverson, who tallied two points.
Albrook only had one player who reached double figures. Kendra Dallman finished the game with 11 points.
Super praised the play of Theresa Morrin and Taylor Ryden. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Theresa led our teams in rebounds. Both players made good cuts to the basket and hit the boards hard.”
The Vikings face Esko on Monday, Dec. 13 at home. Game time is 6:30 p.m. Go Vikes!!!
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