Caitlyn Wojahn drives in for a layup during the Vikings 85-72 win over the University of Minnesota-Morris on Monday night. (Mark Potts/VCTR)

By Mark Potts
Valley City Times-Record

Trailing 44-40 going into the halftime, the Valley City State women’s basketball team knew they could have played better.
“We were playing very lackadaisical defense,” said senior guard Brittany Olson. “Actually lazy on both ends of the court compared to what we like to do. So we had to get ourselves fired up and ready to go because we knew we should have been playing a lot better.”
The Vikings did just that, opening the second half in a full-court press that led to easy baskets and turned the momentum in the Vikings 85-72 win over the University of Minnesota-Morris on Monday night at the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse.
“We came out flat in the first half,” head coach Jill DeVries said. “We just thought we’d press in the second half to see if we could get some tempo into the game and it worked in our favor.”
The Vikings forced eight turnovers in the first seven minutes of the second half as they rallied from a 44-40 deficit to a 62-48 lead on the strength of their defense and eight points by center Abby Rittenhouse.
For the game Valley City forced 24 turnovers by the Cougars, 19 of those coming on steals. The Vikings picked up 28 points off turnovers, 16 of those coming in the second half.
“The press was just really effective,” said DeVries. “I thought we did a good job rushing them, not just making bad passes, but maybe rushing what they wanted to do on the offensive end.”
After being burned by the Cougars for seven 3-pointers in the first half – three each by Tynell Kocer and Jenni Noordmans – the Viking defense clamped down, limiting the Cougars to just two 3-point makes in the second half.
An Andrea Hummel jumper in the lane gave Valley City their biggest lead of the game at 74-58 with less than six minutes remaining. The Cougars would close to within eight at 74-66, but Olson beat the shot clock with a jumper on the next possession and then scored four more points down the stretch to help hold off the charging Cougars.
Olson finished with 14 points while freshman Emily Goedert led the Vikings with 20 points off the bench, 12 coming in the first half.
“She’s instant offense,” DeVries said about Goedert, the first person off the bench. “The kid knows where the basket is and she’s not shy about putting the shot up. She has confidence that it’s going in every single time.”
Rittenhouse finished with 16 points and nine rebounds while Caitlyn Wojahn and Amanda Brown filled up the stat sheet. Wojahn scored 10 points, pulled down four rebounds, dished out eight assists and tallied five steals. Brown finished with eight points, seven rebounds and four steals.

For full story see Tuesday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.