Sports
Vinton County Week In Review: Dec. 15-22
By: Megan Stamper
Posted on:
GIRLS
On Thursday, Dec. 19, the Vinton County Lady Vikings hosted the Nelsonville-York Lady Buckeyes, and squeaked out with a 50-45 victory.
Leading the charge for the Lady Vikings was sophomore Michaela Puckett, who had 30 of the Vikings’ 50 points. Puckett is a representation of the young talent on this Lady Vikings squad. They knew coming into the season that one of the challenges they would face was their youth, but they have done a good job of not showing this youth.
It was a tale of two halves for Vinton County, as they got off to a slow start in the first half. Contributing to that slow start was a heavy amount of turnovers from the Lady Vikings. A change in game plan helped the Lady Vikings take control of the game in the second half.
“We changed up our defense in the second half,” said head coach Mark Dixon. “We played smart and made plays when we needed too.”
One aspect that Dixon thinks his team can work on is free throws.
“We missed a lot of foul shots at the end of the game,” said Dixon. “The way we were shooting them you would have thought that we don’t practice them, but we do.”
This win for the Lady Vikings put them one game behind Nelsonville-York in the TVC-Ohio. The Lady Buckeyes sit at 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference. Vinton County is 6-3 overall, but sits behind Nelsonville because of a 2-2 conference record.
The Lady Vikings host Trimble on December 30th.
BOYS
Despite having three players scoring in double digits, the Vinton County Vikings fell short against the Athens Bulldogs, 60-42 on Friday night.
Two of these scorers were sophomores Chase Wood and Jordan Albright, who had 10 and 11 points, respectively. The lead scorer on the night was senior Alex Owings, who racked up 12.
After only scoring three points in the first quarter, the Vikings knew they had to make some adjustments. The Bulldogs were playing a tight 2-3 zone and Vinton County was having a hard time penetrating the paint. According to Vikings’ head coach Matt Combs, the ability to get the ball into the zone was a bright spot in the Vikings’ loss.
“In the second half we offensively made a better effort to get the ball into the zone, but our defense was the problem in the second half,” said Combs.
The inability of the Vikings’ defense to keep Athens out of the paint would eventually lead to their downfall.
Ibi Watson was able to crank out 21 points for the Bulldogs by getting penetration in the zone. Combs said preventing penetration is something they need to improve upon going forward.
“We had trouble keeping them out of the zone in the second half, but if we can look at it as a learning point then we can use it to get better and it won’t be a complete negative,” said Combs.
He stated that the things that went wrong in the game were just “mental mistakes” by his team and that he and his team realize they will need to grow up a bit as their schedule turns to league play.
Vinton County will host the Jackson Ironmen on Dec. 27.