Submitted by Vaughn MuellerCoach of NVSS Senior Girls Basketball
The NVSS senior basketball girls traveled to Kamloops for the Sahali Senior girls Invitational this past weekend. “This was a pivotal weekend for the girls,” Mueller said. “We had a tough loss in the finals last weekend to Duchess Park at home, so I was really interested to see how the girls would come out this weekend.”
The Viqueens came out hard against Salmon arm burying them in the first quarter 23-4 and 45-9 at the half. The Viqueens went on to win by a score of 74-29 which sent them into a collision course with #5 ranked Vernon.
This was a long anticipated game for our team. We came out a little nervous, as Vernon jumped out to an early lead, and then stretched it to 19 just after the half. After a quick time out and a full court pressure defence implemented the Viqueens found their confidence. Turnovers began to take there toll on Vernon, and some very hot shooting by Sydney Andres (29 pts) and Katie Verduzco (20 points) had the Viqueens roaring back eventually seeing Katie Verduzco hitting a huge shot to put the game into overtime. After that there was no looking back. The Viqueens drubbed Vernon in the extra frame to secure the victory 86-79. “This was a huge win for us,” Mueller said. “We showed incredible resilience and poise. They took care of business when they needed to and that is a mark of a veteran team.”
Game 3 the second game of the day was against #7 ranked OKM. “This was a tough game for us,” Mueller said. We were already 2 games in to the tournament and the legs were feeling the mileage as we had already played one extra game and one of them was a gruelling come from behind OT Victory. OKM was a tough team that was very motivated to play. We started off a little flat, lacking some energy; we fell behind 23-10 in the first half before the girls found their spark. “I thought our defence really took them out of the game in the second quarter, as an over whelming 3-2 half court defence combined with over whelming pressure allowed the Viqueens to control the remainder of the game eventually wearing down OKM 60-53.” Katie Verduzco and Sydney Andres once again led the way with 26 and 16 points respectively.
“Game 4 was simply an unbelievable effort,” said Mueller. The Viqueens took on the home team Norkam Saints, and played some of their best basketball of the weekend. This game could have been a sleeper as the legs were tired and the body’s sore. But the girls to their credit came out and buried a very athletic Norkam squad early, running away with it an sealing the victory by a score of 80-48. Jordan Andres lead the way with a gritty 20 points, while sister Sydney chipped in with 18 and Danny Marks and Katie Verduzco displayed some very hot shooting from beyond the arch with 14 and 11.
“Overall a fantastic weekend,” said Mueller. “It was a total team effort; we displayed many of traits and characteristics of a great team. We utilized our depth, displayed mental toughness and executed when we needed to. We simply wore teams down.”
The Viqueens Next action is against York house Feb 4-6th in Vancouver.
