Ginnis Drops 33 In Comeback Win

After a tough road loss to the undefeated Yakima Valley Yaks, BBCC hoped to flush it and prepare for Saturday January 27 as they hosted the Walla Walla Warriors at the Devries Activity Center. 

With a busy week ahead, the Runnin' Vikes prepared for the first of four games in a seven day stretch with the Warriors. Hoping to build some momentum going into a full week, BBCC got off to a stellar start shooting 56% from the floor in the first half versus Walla Walla. Unfortunately, quality ball security and efficient shooting was not enough to keep up with the Warriors as Big Bend went into the break trailing by 8 points due to Walla Walla's success from beyond the arc. 

BBCC continued to shoot the ball well in the second half and chipped away at the Warrior lead. A back and forth battle came down to the wire as the Runnin' Vikes were able to outscore Walla Walla 39-31 in the second half resulting in a tie game at the end of regulation. BBCC managed to shoot a perfect 4-4 from the floor in overtime compared to the Warriors 2-7 completing an 18 point comeback in favor of the Vikes with a final score of 91-86.

LJ Ginnis carried BBCC with a season high 33 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, while Gideon Harris chipped in with 20 points and Malik Beauford, fresh off the injury reserve picked up where he left off dropping 14 points on 7-8 shooting in his return. 

Head Coach Jason Hopkins had this to say regarding the victory and how they plan to proceed.

"I thought we had tremendous resilience today against Walla Walla. We battled back from down 15 and that was because our guys are beginning to fight through adversity and really play together as one. LJ Ginnis's development and willingness to buy-in to our concepts has made a really big difference and it showed in his 33 point performance tonight. Getting Malik back after 6 weeks was also a major contributor to our being able to pull this game out and Gideon Harris's strong play off the bench continues to be a major factor. We need to continue to get better at executing on both offense and defense, too many time today we blew defensive assignments and we imprecise on our offensive reads and decision making. As we go into the Blue Mountain game on Monday with a short turnaround we have to be prepared to guard at a higher level, protect our backboards better and play as a team from the opening tip rather than allowing ourselves to dig into a hole and have to climb out of it. The fans were wonderful and we really appreciate them for coming out to the game, the guys love playing for Moses Lake and all of Grant and Adams county."

BBCC hosts Blue Mountain Community College on Monday January 29th at the Devries Activity Center at 7:00pm due to an earlier cancelation. 

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