Lady Vikes falter late after testing No. 2 Cardinals

 AVOCA (Nov. 27) -- With four and a half minutes left in the third quarter Tuesday night, the AHSTW girls basketball team trailed second-ranked (2A) Treynor by just six points.
 The Lady Vikes were outscored by 19 the rest of the way - struggling to get defensive stops and seeing their turnover count climb to 18 - but first-year coach Steven Sauvain was encouraged overall in a 66-41 defeat.
 AHSTW dropped to 1-2 on the year (0-1 in Western Iowa Conference play) while the Cardinals, who beat Harlan 55-27 on Monday, improved to 2-0. Treynor reached the Class 2A state semifinals last season and was the state runner-up in 2016.
 “I think we did a great job of competing,” Sauvain said. “For (playing) a veteran number two team in the state, I was extremely pleased with our ability to hang around and be competitive. We are learning and I feel like we will be a tough out by the end of the year.”
 Outscored 22-12 in the second quarter, the Lady Vikes trailed 32-20 at halftime before edging closer in the third. They attempted just 25 field goals in the game but made 16 of them to finish at a 64 percent clip, including 4-of-5 from three-point range. Conversely, they hit just 5-of-13 free throws and were outrebounded 34-19.
 Treynor, aided by 15 offensive boards, took 55 total shots and made 20 (36.4 pct.), but was deadly from the arc with 13 treys in 33 tries. Sophomore Mandy Stogdill drained 5-of-7 threes for 15 points while Konnor Sudmann (18 points) and Sydney Carman (11 points) both hit 3-of-8 from long distance.
 AHSTW was led by third-year starter Kinsey Scheffler, who made 6-of-7 field goals and finished with 15 points and six rebounds.