Lady Vikes fall in the Valley

After win in first round, girls lose to top-ranked Valley Christian

WILLIAMS - The Lady Vikings basketball team entered the state playoffs as the 17th seed with a 13-12 record after several late season losses to Camp Verde, St. Johns and Grey Hills.

With the regular season behind them, the Lady Vikes took on the Hayden Lobos Feb. 17 in Round 1 of the state tourney.

Over the course of the first quarter the Lady Vikes developed a commanding 21-2 lead. Hayden regrouped in the second quarter, putting 16 points on the board but even with the surge, the Lady Vikes ended the half up 38-18.

Head coach Phillip Echeverria said the girls came out and played solid basketball from the tip off.

"We came out and played well in the first quarter and kind of took them out of their game," Echeverria said. "We almost kind of coasted the rest of the game. I was really happy with what we did offensively and defensively in that game."

In the second half the Lady Vikes continued to put points on the board outscoring Hayden 25-7 and advancing to the second round with a 62-25 win.

In the second round, the Lady Vikings faced top ranked Valley Christian at Horizon High School Feb. 19. The girls played a confident first quarter, going into the second quarter down by two points.

Echeverria said the Lady Vikes played the first quarter mostly according to their game plan.

"We had a few turnovers and there was some traveling called," he said. "We made a couple of lay-ups when they called the traveling. That kind of hurt us and took a little momentum from us. They came out really aggressive like we thought they would. We worked the 1-3-1 zone and played it really well and were in the ballgame."

In the second quarter, Valley Christian turned up the heat, outscoring Williams 24-4. At the end of the half Valley Christian held a commanding 33-11 lead.

"Defensively we fell apart and gave up some easy buckets," Echeverria said. "They were making some better cuts to the basket. We weren't denying those. Offensively we really struggled pretty much the whole game. We didn't look for our shots and we didn't take our shots when we had them."

Echeverria went on to say the girls fought hard to stay in the game in the second half. The Lady Vikes gave up 19 points in the third quarter while only putting nine points of their own on the board. In the fourth quarter, Williams shot for 12 points and held Valley Christian to five points.

When the game was all said and done, the Lady Vikes were knocked out of the playoffs with a 32-57 loss.

Echeverria said he felt the Lady Vikes could have stayed in the game with Valley Christian.

"If we had played one of our better ball games it definitely would have been a closer game there at the end," he said. "I was proud of the way the girls finished. All my starters scored in the game and I'm really proud that we finished in the state tournament and lost to the number one seed. You can't complain too much about that."