Villisca gets wins over Stanton, Nishnabotna

VILLISCA — The Villisca Blue Jays girls basketball team was 7-0 heading into Monday night’s showdown against the second ranked in Class 1A Bedford Bulldogs.

Villisca picked up wins last week against Nishnabotna and Stanton.
The Blue Jays  big win of the week though was against the Stanton Viqueens, 46-43.

“It was good, it was awesome,” Blue Jays Head Coach Donna Williams said after the game.

Morganne Haer and Jill Vanderhoof sank free throws late to keep the Blue Jays ahead and give them their first win over Stanton since Feb. 12, 2009.

“They did an awesome job,” Williams said about Haer and Vanderhoof.  “When it counted, they did it.”

The Viqueens did have an opportunity to tie the game twice. On their first attempt, Haer stole the ball at half court, only to turn it over with 0.9 seconds left on the clock. Stanton had an inbounds opportunity, but time ran out.

“We know we needed to keep calm, slow things down,” Vanderhoof said.  “We just needed to make sure we stayed as a team together and make sure we finished out every play.”

Stanton trailed for most of the game, but were able to tie it and even take the lead in the fourth quarter. The Blue Jays however went on a scoring run in the final couple of minutes to seal the win.

“We wanted to control the ball, but we also wanted some people to step up and shoot the ball,” Williams said. “We still had confidence in those girls to go and do that.”

Amanda Focht finished the game as the team’s leading scorer, contributing 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting to the win.

Focht’s 17 rebounds gave the junior a double-double. Vanderhoof scored nine points, while Haer recorded seven.

“We had a lot of emotion going through,” Vanderhoof said. “We wanted this for a long time and we were excited to finally get the win.”

They defeated the Nishnabotna Blue Devils on Friday night, 38-33 at home. Vanderhoof finished the game as the team’s leading scorer, with 13 points on 4-for-16 shooting.

Amanda Focht had eight points and was the game’s leading rebounder with 19 boards (five offensive).

Results from the Bedford game weren’t available as of press time.
We’ll post an update on the Red Oak Express website Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday night, Villisca will be home again to play the Fremont-Mills Knights.