Posted: 2/1/06

Viking girls have toughest week of the season

By Patrick Tepoorten

The North Branch Vikings girlsí basketball team had their two toughest opponents back to back last week, as they welcomed first place Benilde-St. Margaretís and Irondale, who has shared third place with the Vikings for most of the season. Benilde, who some believe is the top team in the state, made a case for that distinction last Tuesday with a 77-52 trouncing of the Vikings.

ìThis is the first game all year that we have really been dominated, ì said Vikings head coach Dan Schindler, whose team found itself on the losing end of a 51-15 halftime score. ìThey (Benilde) have physical size, quickness, and are great shooters.î

Although the Vikings started slow and committed early turnovers to create the huge halftime deficit, they showed a lot of heart in the second half, outscoring the Red Knights 37-26. ìAt halftime we just talked about doing the things we can do and playing hard every possession,î commented Schindler.

Gabrielle Olson had a solid night from the floor, scoring a team-leading 16 points against the Red Knights. Tiffany Good was also strong, scoring 12 points.

To suggest that the Vikings schedule got ìeasierî with third place Irondale in town last Friday would be both true and false. While Irondale may not be the caliber of Benilde, they proved to be an excellent team in their own right, and gave the Vikings some trouble.
That trouble would be most noticable with a struggling Vikings offense that had trouble getting the ball inside. When they were able to get position under the Irondale basket, they often proved unable to convert shots into points.

Nevertheless, the Vikings played the Knights very tough on defense and turnovers and team speed made for an exciting, up-and-down first half. At the buzzer, the Vikings trailed 33-25. Aware that they had defeated Irondale earlier in the year, the Vikings used the second half to try and recreate the earlier game and outscored the Knights 35-30, short by three points from tying the game.
The final score was Knights 63, Vikings 60.

ìThe real story of the game just came down to shooting,î said Schindler after the game. ìThey didnít get as many shots as us, but they made more. Some games this year we have just struggled shooting and this was one of those nights.î

Schindlerís disappointment in the outcome was softened by how hard the girls worked in the second half. ìI was pleased that our girls never gave up and almost came all the way back. You canít give good teams big leads and expect to overcome that. But the effort has been there all year and I am really proud of the girls for that.î

The Vikings effort against the Knights included four players with double-digit scoring. Olson led with 15 points, Marlayna Graff finished with 12, and Kacie Ramberg and Kristen Robatcek each had 10 points.

The losses this week relegate the Vikings to fourth place in the conference. That is a situation that Schindler and Co. will be looking to rectify in the coming week when the face Fridley and Robbinsdale Cooper.

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