Lady Vikings celebrate Senior Night with first win
CALEDONIA — A 26-point game and a three-and-a-half minute dribbling drill by senior Morgan Midgett highlighted the Valley Lady Vikings first win on their last home game of the season. It was also their Senior Night, and they celebrated it with a 44-33 win over the Kingston Lady Cougars to gain a first conference win as well.
The two teams battled for supremacy in the first quarter with three lead changes and a tied game at 8-8. Sami Deaton began to establish herself as Kingston’s go-to girl, scoring 10 points in the first quarter including the game’s only three-pointer.
Valley’s Callee Payne scored a pair of baskets and Midgett tallied nine points in the first frame to help the Lady Vikings take the lead for good.
Kingston’s leading scorer Misty Guenther contracted her third foul early in the second quarter and had to take a seat for preservation purposes. With Guenther on the bench, the Lady Cougars slowed down the pace, including a 30-second stall with Deaton dribbling the ball near half-court, while Valley stayed in their zone.
Breaking the stall, Deaton tried to drive the lane but the play resulted in a forced shot which went long.
Maybe in rebuttal, maybe in their game plan, but the Lady Vikings answered with a stall of their own. With 3:47 still on the clock before the half, Midgett crossed half-court and stopped to begin a stall-out for the last shot. The Lady Cougars were content to wait with their zone set up around the key.
With the lead and no contesting by Kingston’s defense, Midgett dribbled, and dribbled, and dribbled, and dribbled in place until the clock had run down to 17 seconds when Valley called time to set up the last-shot play.
The play wasn’t quite to perfection as their first shot went long, but an alert Sam Morgan made the back-door putback to give the Lady Vikings a 25-16 lead at the break.
Scoring in the third quarter was at a premium as both defenses became stingy and both offense slowed down the pace. The Lady Cougars were only able to score one field goal with their other five points coming at the line. The Lady Vikings had to rely on Midgett, who scored all six of their quarter’s points.
Key baskets by Kristen Civey and Kiana Loughary helped maintain Valley’s lead in the fourth quarter as Midgett and Deaton matched points down the stretch. Guenther and Selena Eckhoff provided one extra basket each for Kingston in the fourth quarter, before Guenther gained her fifth foul.
Even thought the game was the third leg of the Hog Trophy series, it had little effect since Potosi already claimed the trophy for another year due to their winning the first two rounds this past week over Kingston and Valley.
Valley (1-16) will travel to Grandview this evening for their next game. Kingston will start Class 3 District play at Crystal City this Saturday against Hancock.
Kingston 12 4 7 10 – 33
Valley 14 11 6 13 – 44
SCORING:
Kingston – Sami Deaton 23, Misty Guenther 5, Selena Eckhoff 3, Lexi Tiefenauer 2. 3-point FG – Deaton. (FT: 14-21)
Valley – Morgan Midgett 26, Callee Payne 6, Kristen Civey 3, Sam Morgan 3, Taylor Robinson 2, Kiana Loughary 2, Tatum Heifner 2. 3-point FG – none. (FT: 10-20)
