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The Viking girls' basketball team fell to 0-3 on the season with a 58-32 loss at Spring Lake Park, Tuesday, December 4.

The Vikings stayed close in the first half, trailing by only five, 28-23, at the intermission. But, as North Branch head coach Dan Schindler put it, "The second half got totally out of hand." The Panthers went on a 16-0 run to start the second session and the Vikings lacked the fire-power to get back in the game.

According to the coach, the Vikings' inexperience really showed in this contest. "Their press bothered us and we got frustrated when things didn't go well."

"Right now, we are trying many different combinations of players and they all are in a learning process. It's going to take some time and we need to take baby steps before we can take bigger steps," Schindler added. "Our effort has always been there, but we need to have some players step up and get the job done on the court. We are working hard to correct these problems and our goal is to just keep improving each game. Each game gives us different match up problems.

"But the attitude of this team is good and we will get better. We need to get much better on the offensive end of the court. Our defense overall is improving and we will have to play great defense to stay in games while our offense has time to catch up," Schindler concluded.

Sophomore Rebecca Collins (7 points, 8 rebounds) and senior Ashley Johnson (9 points, 7 rebounds) led the Vikings.

Scoring Summary

North Branch 23 9 32

Spring Lake Park 28 30 58

Cori Fairbanks 5

Jessica Audette 1

Kendra Norman 3

Miranda Charley 2

Rebecca Collins 7

Amanda Sylla 5

Ashley Johnson 9

Total 32

The Vikings hope things go better at St. Francis Friday, December 14 and at home Tuesday, December 18 against Benilde-St. Margaret's. Both North Suburban Conference games begin at 7:15.

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