Victories don’t always come down to the star player scoring in double figures to lead their team. Often times, it comes down to “hustle plays” that change the game.
That was the case for the Parkview Lady Vikings in their 46-40 victory over the host Central Lady Bulldogs on Monday night at The Pit.
Senior Bethany Harris hit a 15-foot jumper with about five minutes left to tie the game at 38. Freshman CJ Stiles followed with two free throws to give the Lady Vikings their first lead (40-38) since the 6:16 mark of the second quarter and Parkview didn’t look back.
“I kind of feel like we had somebody different step up, but I feel like Bethany Harris really did,” Parkview coach Keri Nichols said. “She took a couple of charges, she came down and tied up the ball… and got two huge rebounds for us. (She) didn’t do anything flashy on the scoreboard, but she hit a key shot; that grit stuff that we talked about, and really made a difference.”
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Central took a 15-13 lead after the first quarter and extended its advantage to 28-22 at halftime, sparked by senior Jaslyn Williams’ 11 second-quarter points.
But foul trouble hit the Lady Bulldogs, with a lot of time to play in the second half.
Three Central players picked up their third fouls in the third quarter. Freshman guard Dasia Pence was whistled for No. 4 with 1:41 left in the third.
“They’re a lot like us in the fact that their offense goes through mainly two people (Williams and Pence) and they got into a little bit of foul trouble,” Nichols said. “Part of that is we just wanted to attack at them, and we made a conscience effort to try to get them into foul trouble and be more aggressive offensively.
“We knew that if we could limit and put some of their threats on the bench, that would help us out quite a bit.”
With Williams out with four fouls, the Lady Vikings began to chip away at Central’s lead in the fourth quarter before Harris tied it at 38 with five minutes to go.
“When my senior Jaslyn’s out, she’s my main scorer and other teams know that,” Central coach Caitlin Russell said. “When she gets her fourth foul, the demeanor of my team really kind of goes down. They (Parkview) did a good job of attacking the basket and getting my girls into foul trouble.”
Parkview turned up the pressure in the second half – not only forcing Central to foul, but also forcing several turnovers and turning those into points.
“We just talked about winning the hustle plays,” Nichols said. “We really felt in the first half that they got the extra rebound, they got the extra shot. We wanted to make sure that we got the grit plays, that we got on the floor, and I kind of felt like that turned the corner as we got some key rebounds that allowed us to run up the tempo a little bit. And I kind of think that changed the pace of the game.”
Williams scored on a drive down the lane to give Central a 38-32 lead to open the fourth quarter, but Parkview went on an 8-0 run and held the Lady Bulldogs scoreless until the 2:33 mark when Williams hit two free throws to pull within two (42-40) of Parkview.
Three free throws from senior Aaliyah Buckley and one from freshman Paiton Acord provided the final margin (46-40) for the Lady Vikings.
“We didn’t do the fundamental things tonight,” Russell said. “Offensively, we scored 12 points in the second half; we scored 28 in the first (half). Twelve in the second (half) is not enough.
“When you hold somebody to 46 points, I feel like that’s enough to win. But, offensively, we just made a few turnovers and they got a few buckets late in the fourth…”
Williams, who was honored before the game for scoring her 1,000th career point for Central on Jan. 7 at Camdenton, led all scorers with 24 points.
Buckley paced Parkview with 13 points.
Parkview 46, Central 40
Parkview – 13- 9-10-14—46
Central – 15-13- 8- 4—40
Parkview (2-8) – Bethany Harris 4, Ty Stiles 8, Aaliyah Buckley 13, Kara Klein 2, Paiton Acord 9, CJ Stiles 6, Kristen Klein 4.
Central (3-9) – Jaslyn Williams 24, Dasia Pence 3, Claire Vienhage 4, Elaina Roeder 7, Parker Heman 2.
Parkview B 41, Central B 39
