Upper left: Jessica Berg-Collman (3) clamps down on defense. Above left: the Vikings’ eighth-grade center Lily Gruber-Schulz gets ready to take the ball to the hole for two points. Above right: Breana Peterson doesn’t shoot often but when she does she often scores. The Vikings have won their last two games and are back on track after a rough December.
Just when the game against South Ridge couldn’t get any more interesting, just when the tension couldn’t get tighter or nerves more taut, it did.
With three seconds to go, a one-point lead, and sophomore guard Jessica Berg-Collman at the foul line shooting one-inone, the game was over.
It was fitting for Jessica to have the ball in this situation. She had been a defensive hero twice in the last minute of play, causing turnovers that led to the Vikings taking the lead. So here she was, her teammates all back guarding the South Ridge basket, the South Ridge players looking anguished as Berg-Collman took aim and let her first free throw fly. And. … game over, right?
Or as GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently said after the results of the Iowa caucus, “Game on.”
We’ll get back to all of that later. But first, a talented, determined South Ridge Panthers girls’ basketball team came to town on Thursday, January 5 and played against a talented, determined Viking team needing a win after suffering five (mostly) close losses on the road in December.
When you have two immoveable forces, someone has to blink, and a blink is about all that separated these two teams at the end of the game.
South Ridge started out with the hot hand, riding the play of their talented senior center Kendra Dallmann, and led 7-2 before the Vikings got on track, finally taking the lead 10-9 at the 12:20 mark behind a nice 3-point basket by Taylor Ryden. It would be Ryden’s only basket of the night because she hurt an injury thought to be healed and had to leave the contest.
At that point the Vikings started feeding their talented young center, eighth-grader Lily Gruber-Schulz, who scored 8 straight points. With the Vikings pushing the pace on offense and defense, it seemed like they were headed for an easy win when they stretched the lead to 27-16. But the Panthers started to claw their way back, and by halftime the Panthers went into the locker room up 28-27.
For the first half senior guard Ashley Deschampe scored one point, about 12 points below her half-time average. It was ironic because before the game, Deschampe, who broke the school scoring record at a game in Ely over Christmas break, was honored with a ceremonial ball given to her to commemorate her accomplishment.
During the second half each team traded baskets, with Theresa Morrin hitting several key baskets early to keep the Vikings close.
With 2:47 to play, South Ridge went on a 5-point run and took a 53-51 point lead. The Vikings were only able to score 1 point in the next minute and 30 seconds and that was a free throw by Deschampe, who had finally found her touch and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to keep the Vikings in the game.
With the Vikings down 53-52, Berg-Collman clamped down on Panther guard Allysa Johnson and forced her into a 5-second violation.
The turnover led to Deschampe once again showing fans the kind of play she is capable of. With 13 seconds left, under heavy pressure, Deschampe dribbled to the Panther corner and from 17 feet out, stepped back and shot the ball over her defenders’ outstretched hands into the basket.
Once Deschampe’s bucket was counted the Panthers made a run for the Viking basket as time was winding down, but again Berg-Collman dogged her man and forced her to travel. With 3 seconds left, the Vikings in-bounded the ball to Berg-Collman, who was immediately fouled with 2 seconds on the clock.
Looking a trifle nervous at the free throw line, Berg- Collman brought the ball up to shoot as her teammates watched from half-court away. But Berg-Collman’s shot missed and the ball was rebounded by Panther star Kendra Dallmann, who at 5’10’ is 6 inches taller than Berg-Collman.
That didn’t stop the Vikings’ spunky sophomore guard from charging in and trying to wrestle the ball away from the bigger, stronger Dallmann. Unfortunately, Berg-Collman’s aggressive play resulted in a two-shot foul for Dallmann, who must have felt the weight of the world resting on her shoulders as she went to the line with two seconds on the clock and every eye in the gym staring straight at her as she readied herself to shoot the foul shots.
With a hushed crowd and the gym filled with nervous energy, Dallmann proceeded to miss both of her free throws, the second one rebounded by senior forward Bekah Laky as time expired, and left the court in tears. The relieved Vikings won the heated contest 54-53. But as much as the win meant to the Vikings and the Viking fans, all felt a great deal of sympathy for Dallmann, who, throughout the night had played a great game of basketball despite missing the free throws.
After the win, Head Coach T.J. Super said, “It was a hard fought win, with many girls stepping up. Most notably the Viking team defense picked it up, Berg-Collman and Breana Peterson did a great job on the ball handlers and Gruber- Schulz ended the game with 8 points, 10 rebounds and 5 big blocked shots.
“Deschampe led the Vikings in scoring with 21 points, 20 of them coming in the second half and scoring the last 9 Viking points of the game,” Super said.
Travel weary
Maybe exhaustion is the secret to keeping the young Viking girls’ team in the win column. After playing the most exciting game of their young lives the night before, the Vikings traveled to Cromwell to face a much tougher opponent the next night, winning 66-54.
But despite weary legs and early jitters, the Vikings quickly settled into a rhythm that saw them taking care of the ball, making their shots and generally forcing Cromwell into turnovers and missed baskets.
Two of the biggest reasons why the Vikings played so well were the leadership of their seniors, Bekah Laky and Ashley Deschampe For the night Deschampe scored 31 points, 15 of them coming off of 3-point shots, and Laky added 15 points.
Once again junior forward Theresa Morrin played well on both ends, collecting at least a half-dozen rebounds to go along with 10 points and making numerous stops on defense. Jessica Berg-Collman had another great game, scoring 7 points and playing tenacious defense. And although eighth-grade center Lily Gruber-Schulz only scoredu l 3 points, she was a force on defense and grabbed a couple of handfuls worth of boards.
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