Wins keep coming for sixth ranked Vikings
by Peter Jakey—Managing Editor
The Viking girls’ basketball team continues to play stellar defense, and the wins are adding up.
The girls improved to 7-0 last Friday with a 49-28 win over defending Little Dipper titleholder, Au Gres. Monday night, the Vikings got a 64-33 at Inland Lakes (IL). It was a game rescheduled because the IL gym floor was not ready earlier in the season.
That gives the program an 8-0 mark on the season.
The perfect record has now garnered downstate recognition as the Associated Press slotted Posen sixth when the rankings came out this week.
Their undefeated record was put to the test Wednesday (after press time) in a nonconference match against 10th-ranked Cedarville (7-2). The Lady Trojans had only lost to St. Ignace and Newberry. The junior varsity game started one hour earlier.
The win over Au Gres puts Posen two games up in the conference standings. They are 6-0 in conference play.
A tall tale stat coming out of the Au Gres game was the Vikings had held opponents to below double digits in 24 of the 28 quarters. They did it in all four quarters against Au Gres (5, 9, 6, 8). Additionally, the defense forced Au Gres into 43 turnovers. Posen had 22.
It was low-scoring affair through the first eight minutes. Jenna Hincka’s 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in the first quarter made it 8-5.
The Vikings upped their lead when Sam Lenard made a pair of shooting fouls that was followed by a Hincka steal and basket the other way for a score of 12-5. A Jolene Reese layup made it 14-5, but Au Gres countered with a 7-0 run to make it 14-12.
Posen responded with a 7-0 run, including five straight points from Hincka. Reese dropped in a jumper from short range. The run heading into halftime was 11-2.
Posen inched ahead in the third and pulled away in the fourth.
The Vikings spread the floor in the second half and let some of their scorers go one-on-one with the Wolverine defenders. “Jenna Hincka is awful hard to stop, one-on-one,” said Posen coach Karl Momrik. “We had some isolation plays that worked really well.
Lenard had nine steals, while Cami LaTulip had nine rebounds and four blocks.
Against Inland Lakes, both teams were plagued with early foul trouble, but Posen took a double-digit halftime lead, 29-17.
The Vikings took over in third, outscoring the home team, 20-5. Hincka led the way with 20 points, while Brooke Ciarkowski and Lenard had 11 points each. Lenard also had 15 rebounds and 12 steals to score the first triple double of her career.
“It was an incredible performance,” said Momrik.
LaTulip scored eight points and had 10 rebounds.
The Vikings travel to Fairview Jan. 21.