Vikings Outlast Packers 44-41

By Ken DeLaat

The two teams put on an exciting performance Friday night with Tri County coming out on top but Fremont may have lost more than a basketball game. Brianna Noordyk part of the sister duo who joined the team last week went down in the closing minutes and was helped off the floor. The extent of the injury has not been determined.
This one was a battle from the onset as a Grace Miller bucket to open the scoring was answered by Calla Miller before Brianna Noordyk fired in one from beyond the arc, followed by two from the line for Calla Miller and a Paige VandenBerg bucket to stake the visitors to a 9-2 advantage after one. Turnovers were plaguing the Vikes before freshman Alicia Bowen came on in the second.
Coach Chris Overbeek commented,“It’s not very often that a freshman gives you a calming effect, but that’s what Alicia did for us tonight when we were turning it over a ton in the first half.”
The hosts came back to grab a 15-11 lead and Fremont was struggling to score when Calla Miller put a nasty spin move on her defender to pull the Pack to within 2 and VandenBerg canned another for the tie then answered TC baskets twice more to keep the teams knotted at 9. With halftime approaching Emma Overbeek speared a 3 pointer from the wing and then managed to draw a foul.Tricia Slavens grabbed the missed shot and with a put-back gave the Vikes a 24-19 edge at intermission.
Taylor Reed opened second half scoring giving TC a 7 point lead the only points tallied for nearly half of the period. That’s when the Pack came back with 10 straight points as Sydney Noordyk joined her sister in scoring before a two and one converted by Miller and another Brianna Noordyke triple off a slick pass from her sibling gave Fremont the lead. The Vikes pushed in front with a Dayoni Mahlich bucket before Natalie Jamieson tipped the scales back to the Packers to end the 3rd with Fremont holding a 31-30 edge.

The 4th was wild as Patenge split from the line followed by Miller banking in a triple from the top of the key. TC answered with a bucket but after another split by Patenge a Brianna Noordyke steal was fired into the hands of Jamieson who canned it to put the Pack up by 5.
Coach Overbeek called time out toright  the Viking ship and soon after  the tide turned toward TC. Mahlich hit a triple to cut the lead to 2 and soon after VandenBerg who had been a force in the paint all night  fouled out. After Calla Miller split a 1:1 Overbeek went the length for 2. Seconds later a technical fouls but Overbeek at the line where she split to tie the game with 3 minutes to play
Reed scored to make it 41-39. The next trip down saw the injury to Brianna Noordyk.
Jamieson was sent to the line and promptly drained a pair to tie it up once more but Reed answered again with what proved to be the game winner after a stop by the Vikes forced Fremont to foul putting Slavens at the line to split a pair at the 2 second mark.
“That’s two in a row where we had to make a fourth quarter comeback,” added Coach Overbeek
A hard fought game between two impressive teams who will both be making their presence known in the Gold race during the second half of the conference season.
A well balanced Viking scoring attack featured Slavens with 9 points Mahlich, 8, Grace Miller 7, Reed and Overbeek 6 and Bowen 4
Slavens pulled down 9 rebounds, Jessica Thompson finished with 7, Overbeek dished out 4 assists and Mahlich snared 6 steals.
Calla Miller knocked down a game high 13 points while Brianna Noordyk and VandenBerg notched 8 apiece.
The Vikings (6-6, 4-3) will host league leading and undefeated Central Montcalm on Friday while The Packers (6-5, 3-4) will travel to Montague Monday for a match up with the Wildcats before resuming to conference play against Chippewa Hills in Remus on Friday.