Lady Vikes rally past Wolves late, stay atop WIC

AHSTW girls improve to 13-1

 MANNING (Jan. 21) -- With a little good fortune and a lot of grit, the AHSTW girls basketball team strengthened its grip on first place in the Western Iowa Conference Tuesday night by earning another hard-fought road win.
 Trailing nearly the entire game, the 11th-ranked (2A) Lady Vikes surged ahead on a banked-in three-pointer by Claire Harris with 1:12 to go and hung on to defeat IKM-Manning 50-48, capping a regular-season sweep.
 Coupled with Audubon’s loss at Treynor, the Lady Vikes are now all alone in first place atop the WIC standings with a 10-1 record (13-1 overall). Lo-Ma and Audubon both have two conference losses while the Wolves are 7-3 in the WIC and 8-4 overall.
 AHSTW won despite turning the ball over 28 times against the Wolves’ relentless pressure and man-to-man defense.
 Emily Kerkhoff’s three-point play gave the Wolves a 43-38 lead early in the fourth quarter. Her ensuing three-pointer made it 46-40, but IKM-Manning would score just two points in the final four minutes and miss six of its last eight free throws.
 AHSTW missed some foul shots as well, but pulled within a point on Kinsey Scheffler’s rebound and three-point play with 1:49 to go. Less than 40 seconds later, Harris made a three that banked off the glass and rolled around the cylinder before falling through, giving the Lady Vikes their first lead  (48-47) since it was 11-10.
 Following a defensive stop, AHSTW was able to run about 40 seconds off the clock before Scheffler was fouled with :18.4 remaining. The fourth-year starter calmly swished both of her free throws to make it a three-point game.
 The Lady Vikes survived one last scare after Ahrenholtz was fouled on a three-point attempt with just :04.4 to play. The IKM-M junior missed the first attempt, made the second and missed the third on purpose. The Wolves got possession on a jump-ball call with only three-tenths of a second left, but Lexi Branning’s catch-and-shoot on the inbounds play was off the mark and would not have counted had it gone in.
 Scheffler led all players with 19 points and had a solid line overall with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Harris made 4-of-8 treys for her 12 points and also had three steals. Kailey Jones finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds while Claire Denning had eight points (two treys) and six boards.
 IKM-M junior Nicole Hanson led the team with 12 points - all in the first half. Her third and fourth three-pointers came back-to-back and put the Wolves up 27-19 at the break. Kerkhoff scored nine of her 11 points in the second half and also totaled seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Ahrenholtz finished with 10 points and three steals.

 
 

 

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