Free Throws Haunt Lady Vikes

After having a number of preseason games cancelled, the Lady Vikes Basketball Program finally got their opportunity to gage where they were at, as they faced off versus an Eastern Region opponent in 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. 

The Lady struggled shooting all night but found themselves leading the Timberwolves 22-20 at half time. Unfortunately, the shooting struggles came back to bite the Lady Vikes 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 with the game being decided by one single point, it came down to the free throw line. The Lady Vikes shot 14-30 from the charity stripe which in the grand scheme of things ended up costing 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. 

Head Coach Preston Wilks had this to say regarding the season opener "We came out super amped for this game and missed quite a few "gimme" shots that we should have finished. We played aggressive offensively and were rewarded with 30 trips to the FT line, but 1st-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."

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

Unfortunately, the shooting struggles continued as the Lady Vikes 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 to the Northwest University JV offense as BBCC dropped their second straight game by a score of 67-53.

Kali Kast was the leading scorer for BBCC 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 a piece. 

"We came out flat after the disappointing 1-point loss from our home opener the nigh prior. We got behind early and had to play from behind the entire game. We played much better and we actually outscore them in the 2nd half, but we were only ever able to get their lead down to 10 points. The NW Univ 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." said Wilks

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 entire team of freshmen, that out 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. After practice on Tuesday this week, the players are off until next Monday when we return to practice to get ready for our next home game, which will be on Tuesday the 28th at 5:30pm in a non-region contest against SFCC."

As always, keep up with the Lady Vikings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as through the NWACSports Network's livestream video platform, where available.