BBCC women end season on a positive note
BBCC Vikings Basketball
WENATCHEE - The Big Bend Community College (BBCC) women's basketball team ended its season in fine fashion with a 69-36 win over the Wenatchee Valley Knights Feb. 22.
Allie Kelsey led the Vikings attack with 20 points, and Alli Nielsen added 15 in the winning for BBCC. Alyssa Dario was the high scorer for the Knights with 10 points.
"We had great energy from the tip and quickly built a double-digit lead mid-way through the first half," coach Preston Wilks said. "One of our goals was to play 'beast-mode' defense as the ladies call it. It worked effectively as we were able to take them out of their 1-4 half court sets they like to run."
The Lady Vikings put 35 first half points on the board to Wenatchee's 20.
Things didn't get any better for the Knights as BBCC out scored the home team 34-16 in the second half of action to win in a cake walk.
"The ladies came out of the locker room with as much intensity and energy as we started the game and we quickly built a 20 point lead," Wilks said. "In my five years as coach of the Vikings, Wenatchee has always been a tough place to play. A 33 point win at their place was really a tremendous exclamation point to end our season. I believe the ladies showed again how much potential they had by beating a tough league opponent by such a wide margin."
The win over Wenatchee was bitter sweet as BBCC (5-9, 15-12) came up short of post-season play.
"It's a bit difficult to look at the upcoming NWAACC tourney and see five teams heading there that we beat during this season," Wilks said. "But we play in the toughest region in the conference and only four teams get to go from our region."
Despite being on the outside looking in, the Vikings did manage a few milestones worthy of note.
"We hit the 15-win plateau and were ranked as high as No. 6 at one point in the season in the NWAACC coaches poll, and as high as No. 3 in the JOWARD power ranking poll," Wilks said. "We also have five of our six sophomores talking to colleges right now and I hope they get a shot to continue playing beyond our level."
Even though BBCC is not a part of post-season play, Wilks said he sees a lot of promise on the horizon for the Lady Vikings.
"We are looking forward to a talented group of freshmen coming back for next season," he said. "And we have high hopes to add a great recruiting class of incoming players."
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