Hardwood Heroes
Raiders hold off Vikings’ second-half comeback
< < Back toBIDWELL, Ohio (WOUB) – The Vinton County Vikings took the trip to Gallia County to take on the River Valley Raiders TVC-Ohio showdown, in which the Raiders squeaked out an overtime victory by a score of 53-50.
The first quarter was dominated by River Valley. The Raiders’ Haylee Elbin poured in eight points in the opening period to put River Valley in the drivers’ seat with a score of 15-7.
The second quarter showed a little more of the same. The Raiders started the quarter out with a 7-0 run, extending their advantage to 15 points. The Vikings were able to keep chipping away at the lead, cutting it to just eleven points as the teams went into the locker room for halftime with River Valley leading 27-16.
But after halftime, it seemed as if a switch was flipped for the Vikings. When asked about what was said in the locker room during the break, Vinton County head coach Brett Jones said, “River Valley’s energy and their level of intensity was much higher than ours, and if we wanted to stay in the game we had to get to that level.”
The Vikings definitely matched the Raiders’ firepower in the second half. A slow third quarter saw Vinton County cut the lead to just nine points, with the score sitting at 32-23 going into the final period of regulation.
The Vikings’ Kylie Smith took over the game in the last few minutes. With 2:40 left in the fourth quarter, Smith made a crucial steal and took the ball across the length of the floor and put in a heavily-contested layup to cut the lead to just three points.
Smith then came up with the ball again, and she took a hard foul. She seemed to be injured, but she fought through the pain and knocked in one of her two free throws. With 1:51 remaining in the game, the Vikings only trailed by two points.
Following three River Valley free throws, Vinton County trailed 46-43. Smith yet again made a tough layup to bring the Vikings within a point, and nearly came up with a steal, but the Raiders got a timeout off beforehand.
Kallie Burger drew a foul and knocked in two free throws to put the Raiders up by three points. Vinton County then advanced the ball past the timeline and called a timeout with 10.5 ticks left on the clock.
Off the inbound pass, the ball fell to Trinity Williams, who pulled up and knocked down a three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left. River Valley was unable to get a basket, and the game went to overtime.
Overtime was uneventful for the most part. Three free throws and a two-pointer for the Raiders helped them pull away with a 53-50 victory.
The Vikings will look to get back on track this Thursday when they host the Wellston Golden Rockets. As for the Raiders, they will go on the road to take on Nelsonville-York on Thursday.