Posen put final touches on its first NSL title in 25 years with a 30-0 run

The Viking girls basketball (16-4 overall, 13-1 league) earned their first outright North Star League championship in 25 years after putting away Arenac Eastern last Thursday with a 30-0 second half run. In reaching their preseason goal of winning the league title, and ending Mio?s seven year reign at the top of the NSL, the girls might look back at a midseason loss to Alcona as the game that turned around their championship season. Alcona has been known as one of the premiere girls basketball programs in northeast Michigan for many years and the Vikings were up by 18 in the home contest played October 4, but ended up losing by five. It was not the way Posen coach Tom Schellie wanted to have his girls playing heading into their rematch at Mio, who had defeated the Vikes in early September, 56-44.

?I THINK THAT the Alcona game was an awakening for us,? said Schellie. ?The Alcona game made us think more about what we had to do and how hard we had to work, and that we need to work continuously to be the best team in the North Star League.? Posen went on to knock off Mio 55-51, which started a 10-game winning streak that continued into Wednesday?s district semifinal game against Hillman. Along the way, the Vikings needed a 74-71 victory over Hillman to at least earn a shared conference crown with the Tigers. A win that night put the girls in the driver?s seat, but one more victory was needed last Thursday against a school at the bottom of the division. Schellie believes, through the fist two quarters of that game, his squad slipped back to the way they played against Alcona. Arenac put together a solid effort and trailed by eight at halftime, 31-23.

The coaches had a longer than usual talk at halftime. ?I had to remind the girls at halftime that we still have a league championship to win here and we don?t want to go into the district on a sour note,? Schellie said. ?We want to be playing the best basketball that we can.? The message didn?t seem to hit home right away as Arenac scored the first two buckets to open the second half and were within four points, 31-27. Arenac was looking to play spoiler, but ended up having their upset bid spoiled when Posen answered with the lopsided 30-0 run.

JUNIOR ROXANN HINCKA started the scoring outburst early in the third quarter. She scored the first seven points of the run, five on consecutive free thro

ws. The Vikes must have felt they could do no wrong when junior Mary Calhoun and Hincka teamed up for a three-point play. Calhoun made the first of two free throw shots but missed the second. She retrieved her own miss and passed the ball to Hincka for the points, which capped the incredible run. Arenac finally ended the drought at the 4:55 mark of the fourth and could only score two more points, as the Vikes closed out the game with a 15-2 run. Hincka had 23 points and 21 rebounds, while Calhoun had 19. Senior Jill Krajniak put in a dozen. On winning the league championship, Schellie described it as ?special.?

?We have a talented bunch of girls,? said Schellie. ?They worked hard all season and it?s good that we are now reaping the benefits of our hard work. We?ve worked hard all season long on everything, and the league was tough. ?It?s a great accomplishment for us as a team and it was one of the goals we set for ourselves before the season started. It was nice to see that goal come true.?