Seadrick Wooding, Tyler Nigretto and Taylor Diepenbrock show their team spirit.
Contributed by Dyan Holmes
On Thursday, Feb. 19, the Lady Vikings fought their way to a victory over the Tacoma Baptist Lady Crusaders.
They played before an excited Orcas crowd. Orcas started off strong with Anika (Chewy) Thomas winning the jump ball and Maddy Smith putting one up for two within in a minute of the first quarter. Smith had a few steals with one leading to a counted basket. The 1st half ended with an Orcas lead of 8 -5. The ladies showed great ball movement and a fierce defensive press that Lady Crusaders could not push through. Coach Terry Moran-Hodge said, “…The key to our success tonight was our press.”
Lanie Padbury driving to the hoop for two points.
The ladies overall accumulated 19 steal mostly from their press. Lady Crusaders tried to pressure Orcas although the ladies fought their way through it every step of the way. At half time Orcas walked of the floor with a ten-point lead.
The second half started no differently than the first. Alison O’Toole stepped on the floor with some aggressive defense which helped Lanie Padbury rebound and go coast to coast to add another two point to the Orcas lead. After the first half the Crusaders came back with a different game plan in mind ending the third quarter with Orcas 30-27 lead. The whole fourth quarter, the ladies were neck-and-neck but the Lady Viking pulled through with a deserved victory of 43-38.
Stephanie Shaw sinks a jump shot.
Stephanie Shaw led the Lady Vikings in scoring with nineteen points followed by Lanie Padbury’s nine. Maddy Smith had eight points and Anika Thomas had six while Halley Parnell had two with several offensive and defensive rebounds. Parnell also led in blocks.
The Lady Vikings next game is against Evergreen Lutheran. When asked what to expect against Evergreen, Moran-Hodge said, “Evergreen is an aggressive team — we need to be disciplined with our fouls. We had two of our starters with four fouls each near the end of this game.”
The ladies are one game closer to being in the finals. Join them Feb. 24 in Puyallup at 8:15 against Evergreen Lutheran, and cheer them on to state!
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