After beating the Canby Cougars, 62-49, on Friday, the Forest Grove Vikings girls basketball team couldn’t seal back-to-back wins Monday night and lost to Tualatin, 42-55.
“Against Canby we executed the offense perfectly,” Lumpkin said. “We played great defense. Had five girls with eight points or more.”
Lumpkin said that the team played hard the entire game. The girls fought for rebounds, hustled on fast-breaks and were hitting shots. Jessica Ortman, Taylor Lira, Kristi Vandebergh and Graciela Haas all scored in double figures and the Vikings (3-7, 9-11 overall) scored the highest total of the season, 62 points.
“We were running up and down the floor,” he said. “We played a complete game.”
On Monday, the lady Viks weren’t as successful.
“Well, it was a Monday night game,” head coach Dan Lumpkin said. “They are hard and we started out slow.”
The slow start was a combination of factors. The most important one: no practice between games. Because of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the team decided not to meet for a weekend shoot-around. It showed on the court. The Vikings trailed by 21 at the half, 29-8.
“A lot of it was, we got good looks and just missed early on,” Lumpkin said. “There were a lot of missed lay ups, our shots weren’t falling and our defense wasn’t as great. But, we eventually cut the lead to nine-points with two-minutes left in the fourth.”
The Vikings play one solid half of basketball every game. Against Tualatin, it wasn’t until the second half that the team’s leaders, Val Bongiorno and Vandebergh got moving. Lumpkin is working on getting the team to play a complete game in preparation for the playoffs.
Bongiorno finished with 15 points, Vandebergh with eight..
“It doesn’t surprise me that Val played so well,” Lumpkin said. “She is capable of scoring 15 points per game and capable of double-doubles every night.”
Lumpkin is planning on examining the game-tape again, “I would assume she got a double-double against Tualatin.”
The Vikings are still looking toward the playoffs. But Forest Grove needs to win a few more games down the stretch to assure themselves a spot – including an important win against McMinnville this week.
“We are definitely still in the playoff hunt,” Lumpkin said. “By beating Canby, it put us in a tie for fourth and the top four go to playoffs. We face McMinnville this week and we already beat them twice. Then we go to Newberg, where we had a lead in the second half but couldn’t hold it. Then Tigard at home for Jammed Gym Night. And we played Tigard tough both times this season.
“It should be good.”
The Vikings visit McMinnville this Friday at 5:45pm.
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