Posen?s league title hopes rest on tonight?s game

In the quest for a North Star League title, or a share of the championship, the Posen Vikings need to win tonight on the home floor against the Mio Thunderbolts. Posen (8-3, 6-1) comes into the game on a two-game winning streak, defeating Hillman last Thursday 47-35. The girls followed up that with a victory Tuesday against De Tour, 49-31. A win would match the Vikings longest winning streak of the season of three, but more importantly, the Thunderbolts would have to make room for the red and white at the top of the division.

In early September, Mio won a decisive contest on its home floor against Posen. Now the Vikings’ are hoping to return the favor. “I’m sure this place will be hopping on Thursday when we have Mio coming,” said coach Tom Schellie. Whitney Meeder topped the scoring for the second game in a row. She had 13 points against Hillman and improved that to 18 against the Raiders. She was second on the team with 10 rebounds, three behind Roxann Hincka with 13.

WHILE SCHELLIE is pleased with the win against De Tour, he didn’t believe it was his players’ best game. “We can play better. We’re a better team than we showed tonight, but, and I told this to the girls in the locker room, we still won and that’s the bottom line,” said Schellie. “There were times in the game where we did look really good.” Schellie emphasizes two goals every game. He wants 45 rebounds and only 15 turnovers. The rebound goal was exceeded by one (46), but there were too many turnovers against De Tour. “Turnovers were kind of high again. We had 29,” said Schellie. “Maybe we were thinking too much about Mio, and we kind of looked past these guys here.” The Vikings got several steals in the first half to pad their lead, though the Raiders kept the margin to within seven or eight most of the second quarter, so they were in the game.

MIDWAY THROUGH the third quarter, Posen finally built its lead to double digits and wouldn’t give it up. Megan Latz had seven points and seven rebounds. Mary Calhoun had six steals. Against Hillman, Katie Lewandowski and Hincka both contributed 11 points each. “I thought we played really good against Hillman,” said Schellie. “It’s probably the second best game we playe

d all year. I thought our best game was against Cedarville when we beat them here at home. We ran the press in the second half and we outscored them by about 11 points.” The girls seem to play their best games on the home floor, so they hope that works to their advantage tonight. The JV starts the action at 6 p.m.

THE JUNIOR VARSITY is on a two-game winning streak after defeating De Tour 42-31 and Hillman, 56-43. Jenny Ciarkowski had 21 points against Hillman, while Michelle Mulka added 14. Kori Latz had a team-high 13 points against De Tour and was followed in the scoring column by Ciarkowski with nine.

The JV improved its record to 7-4 overall and 4-2 in the NSL. Up next on the schedule will be the fourth consecutive home game Tuesday against Hale.