By Travis Smola
The Vicksburg varsity girls’ basketball team didn’t forget the pain of last year’s early elimination from tournament play. The team carried that energy into this year’s postseason, helping secure a District title and punching the team’s ticket into the Regional round after a 69-57 victory over rival Paw Paw.
“We’ve been waiting for this game since last year’s District final,” Head Coach Tim Kirby said. “One year, we’ve been waiting for this specific game, and we knew all year long we were going to play Paw Paw tonight. It’s what we’ve been focused on for five months now. They beat us the first time, and I told my girls after that game, let’s go win games two and three. We did, we found a way.”
The Red Wolves didn’t make it easy for the Bulldogs. Momentum was constantly shifting. The two teams were tied after the first quarter and tied for most of the second. Eventually, Paw Paw had a 33-29 advantage at the half. Vicksburg was forced to make a defensive adjustment in the second half to counteract Paw Paw’s size advantage.
“We played man to man in the second half, and we don’t play much man, but it really kind of flustered them a bit,” Kirby said.
Makayla Allen led the Bulldogs with 24 points, hitting five three-pointers. Maddi Diekman had 14 points in the contest, six of which came at the free-throw line in the game’s waning minutes. Hannah DeVries had 11 points; Kendra Cooley had nine. Emma Steele added seven points, and Scarlett Hosner rounded out the scoring with four. Hosner had a key field goal at the end of the third that tied things up again 46-46.
In the fourth, Vicksburg built up a six-point lead with two minutes left in the game. The team used some excellent passing to burn up the clock. When Paw Paw tried intentional fouls, the Bulldogs sunk them to pull away for good.
Before the Paw Paw game, Vicksburg first had to contend with Three Rivers in the first game of tournament play. The Bulldogs took control of that game early and it was never really in question. Vicksburg had a 23-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“You’re always concerned about these games,” Kirby said after that contest. “You don’t want to look ahead.”
Against the Wildcats, Diekman led the scoring with 14 points. Allen and Hosner were right behind her with 13 points each. Steele had 10 points; Cooley had nine. DeVries had six points and Emily Zemitans had four. Sidney Jones and Alexis Bennett each had two points while Brooklynn Ringler added a free throw.
The team’s ability to spread the ball around and its deep depth chart allowed it to cycle girls in and out of the lineup, making them a hard matchup for opponents all season. Kirby credited his team’s desire to win for their success all year.
“It’s just a special group of girls,” Kirby said. They play so hard, and they just want to win—for each other and me, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
