In the early stages of Thursday night’s road game against the Weber State Wildcats, second-year women’s basketball Head Coach Sherri Murrell wasn’t sure what sport her squad was playing out on the floor.
“I seriously thought we were a volleyball team at one point,” Murrell joked to Teri Mariani, during a postgame radio interview session. “We had several open shots where we just kind of rushed it, rushed it, rushed it.”
Eventually, the Vikings settled into their game, slowing down on offense and coming back from an early deficit in the first half to prevail over the Wildcats 76-63.
The victory extended the Vikings’ perfect start to conference play, pushing their Big Sky record to 3-0. Last week they defeated Sacramento State and Northern Arizona at home to begin their conference schedule.
Weber State applied tough defensive pressure on the ball and forced the Vikings to start out cold while it was the hometown Wildcats that opened the night hot and particularly focused their attention on shutting down senior forward Kelsey Kahle, the Vikings leading scorer who came into the game with a 17.6-points-per-game average.
Kahle, who was held to just five points in the game, recognized the increased attention she was receiving, and was more than happy to get her teammates involved.
Junior guard Claire Faucher, who has been playing at the off-guard position since freshman guard Eryn Jones entered the starting line-up, flourished on offense and ended the night with 20 points, 12 of which came on three-pointers.
Sophomore forward Kate DePaepe stepped up again and played well off the bench for the Vikings, pulling down seven rebounds and scoring 12 points, six of which came on two three-pointers down the stretch that broke Weber State’s back.
“Those two threes were huge at that point,” Murrell told Mariani.
But the real turnaround for the Vikings came on the defensive end, where they buckled down to start the second period, shutting down the Wildcats’ attack and freeing the way for a 14-0 run.
“We had to dig ourselves out of a hole,” Murrell told Mariani after the game. “It took stops on defense and being calm on offense.”
Though their leading scorer tallied well under her usual mark, other Vikings contributed on the offensive end, including Jones, who finished with nine points, and sophomore forward Kellie Valentine, who notched 11 points.
The road win in Ogden was the first for the Vikings since the 2002-03 season.