By Travis Smola
The Vicksburg varsity girls’ basketball team has had some trouble as of late and will have some work to do to get back on track.
The lady Bulldogs kept things close early in their latest game against a good Mattawan team on the road. It was 18-13 after the first period.
In the second quarter however, the Wildcats opened up a 20-point lead that gave the Bulldogs little chance of a comeback. The team did execute much better in the second half, but in spite of their best efforts, couldn’t overcome the huge lead Mattawan had. The final score was 54-37. “We didn’t execute fundamentals tonight,” head coach Jesse Vanabel said.
Junior Layna Steele was again the leading scorer for the Bulldogs, closely followed by Alicia Cagney and Grace Welch.
Even though it was a rough loss, there were some positive takeaways. “We gave a much better effort in the second half,” Vanabel said. “We just have to do it for the full 32 minutes.”
Vicksburg closed out January with a big win over Three Rivers 48-43 and a win over Allegan 45-42. Unfortunately they dropped the next three games against St Joseph, Sturgis and Plainwell. They briefly got back to their winning ways with victories over Dowagiac and South Haven before their latest three game skid.
“We’ve been off and on the second half of the season,” Vanabel said.
In order to get the lady Bulldogs back into their winning ways, Vanabel plans on going back and really working on the fundamentals this week in practice to prepare as the season starts winding down.
That next matchup won’t be easy either. Vicksburg will face off against a tough Edwardsburg team at the start of the conference championship playoffs. They suffered a close defeat when the played the Eddies at home just two weeks ago.