Busy week for Lady Vikes

It was a busy week of basketball for the Ventura girls, as they competed in three games in as many days.

NSK 71, Ventura 25
The Lady Vikes hit a buzz saw when they faced North Sentral Kossuth on Thursday, Jan. 31, in Fenton.
Despite a good first quarter, where the Lady Vikes were able to handle the Eagles’ press and get off some high percentage shots, NSK dominated the rest of the game on their way to a 71-25 victory.
“We turned the ball over too many times, which was also a result of us only getting 32 shots off in the game,” said Coach Lucas Kreuscher. “I thought NSK really got aggressive in the second half and didn’t let us make the pass.”
Kaley Imhoff led the Lady Vikes with 11 points and four rebounds for the night. She also connected on one three-point shot. Rounding out the scoring was Brittany Boehnke with six, and Morgan Welp, Megan Schuler and Blair Berhow-Goll each had two points.
Amber Smith led the team in assists with three and Welp led the team in rebounds with five. Boehnke also grabbed four rebounds and Hannah Vavrik had three.

Harris-Lake Park 43, Ventura 37
The Lady Vikes had their chance on Friday, Feb. 1, when they hosted Harris-Lake Park in a Cornbelt Conference showdown.
Ventura only trailed by five points at halftime, but they couldn’t make up the deficit and fell, 43-37.
“HLP did a great job of taking away everything in the paint and making us beat them from somewhere else on the court,” said Coach Lucas Kreuscher. “Going into the game, we knew if we were to limit them to one shot every trip down the floor we would be fine. Unfortunately, we allowed 18 offensive rebounds. We didn’t put our best product on the floor tonight.”
Three players were close in the scoring category with Brittany Boehnke picking up 10 points, Hannah Vavrik had eight and Kaley Imhoff contributed seven points. Amber Smith, Allie Schuler and Morgan Welp all had four points each.
Schuler’s speed on the court led her to a team high nine steals. Imhoff and Smith each had four steals. Welp led the team under the boards with 10 rebounds. Vavrik grabbed five and Boehnke had three. Smith led the team in assists with three.

Central Springs 70, Ventura 35
“Central Springs got after us defensively and forced us to make bad decisions, and that’s what happened,” said Coach Lucas Kreuscher as he summed up his team’s 70-35 non-conference loss to Central Springs on Saturday, Feb. 2.
Morgan Welp had an outstanding game for the Lady Vikes with 13 points, 10 rebounds and two steals. Also scoring for Ventura was Allie Schuler with six, Kaley Imhoff had five, Brittany Boehnke and Blair Berhow-Goll each had four points. Amber Smith had two and Megan Schuler picked up one point.
Collecting rebounds for the team was Allie Schuler with three and Megan Schuler, Smith, Boehnke and Berhow-Goll all grabbing two boards. Imhoff had two steals and Smith had two assists.
“Our turnovers led to their lay-ups. They can score a bunch of points in a hurry,” said Kreuscher.
The Lady Vikes open District action on Thursday, Feb. 7, against Sheffield-Chapin/Merservey-Thornton in Sheffield.