On Friday Jan. 16, the Orcas Lady Vikings ran neck to neck with the visiting La Conner Lady Braves but fell 30-39 at the end of the fourth quarter.

“We were okay in the first two quarters but we had a bad second half. We seemed tired and inaccurate in the third quarter,” Coach Terry Moran-Hodge commented. “We battled to the end but it was one of those nights when it was tough to get the ball to drop in the hoop. The Lady Braves got ahead in the first quarter and just pushed their momentum throughout.”

In scoring, the Lady Vikings were led by Stephanie Shaw, who got in 14 points and was 8/10 for free throws. Maddy Smith led in rebounds, snagging seven balls and providing leadership for the team.

Coach Moran-Hodge said, “This was a very physical game, a real struggle on the court up and down. We knew what we were getting into and this team looks like they are the ones to beat. They are undefeated in our league. They are beatable. We’ll get another chance when they come to Orcas in February.”

The Lady Vikings also went to Darrington this week on Tuesday and won 50-46. “It was a close defensive battle,” said Coach Moran-Hodge. Lanie Padbury led in scoring, but all of the team contributed to the scoreboard. Padbury scored 12 points, Shaw had 12 and Halley Parnell had 8 points. “Stephanie had ten steals and Lanie had seven steals. We really pressured them; there was some inexperience on their team and we took advantage. Darrington is a ways away and to play well makes the long bus ride worth it.”

The Orcas team used a full court press for the entire time and tried to force Darrington into lots of errors. It was very effective. In the first quarter, Orcas was behind 14-10, in the second quarter they were down 24-25 and then in the third quarter they led 37-36 and came out on top in the final 50-46.

On Saturday Jan. 17 the Lady Vikings played a much taller school from a bigger league, Foster High School. The final score was 28-38, Foster on top.

Coach Moran-Hodge said, “It was intimidating at first for us, as Foster is a very big team, very tall, and we had to adjust to that. Also we had played the night before and were worn out and we are going to have to adjust to that as well, because of weather induced make-up games.”

Padbury was high scorer with 12 points, Shaw had seven, Parnell had three, Maddy Smith scored three, Alison O’Toole shot for two points and Anica Thomas scored two as well. Rebounds were hard to come by. One opponent was over six feet in height and Thomas blocked her shots three times. In rebounding, Shaw led with seven rebounds and Padbury followed with six.

“Even lay-ins and put back shots were tough, with these tall, aggressive players,” said Coach Moran-Hodge. “Every point we made was fought for. Our team had to work very hard to get anything in on these players but they had a great time working the court.”

The Lady Vikings play again on Friday, Jan. 23 at home, against Concrete, at 6 p.m.