NICKERSON, Kan. – The Smoky Valley basketball teams were on the road Friday night against the Nickerson Panthers. The Vikings jumped out to early leads in both the boys and girls contests and didn’t look back in big victories.
Girls-Smoky Valley 54, Nickerson 24– The Vikings used a 10-0 start to set the pace for the night as they held a 14-point lead at halftime at 24-10. Leading by 18 after three quarters, Smoky Valley outscored Nickerson 17-5 in the final quarter for the 30-point victory. Illie DeBaere got off to a great start, scoring seven points in the first half and finishing with a career high 14 for the Vikings. Freshmen Natalee Brown and Grace Dudley each scored 11, which were both career highs as well. Smoky Valley’s 54 points were a season high and they are now 2-6 overall, starting their Central Kansas League season at 1-0. Centhiyah Bankston was the only double figure scorer for the Panthers, putting up a game-high 15 points. Nickerson is 0-12 and 0-3 in the CKL.
SV – DeBaere 14, Brown 11, Dudley 11, Ryan 8, Haxton 4, Schrag 4, Flax 2
Nickerson – Bankston 15, Ohnmacht 5, Cornejo 2, Powell 2
Boys- Smoky Valley 68, Nickerson 29 – Smoky Valley took a 4-0 lead and Nickerson got a three-pointer from Easton Clifford to get within one early on. From that point on, it was all Vikings as they went on a 14-0 run to go up 18-3, stretching their lead to 27-11 by the end of the first quarter. An 18-6 second quarter put Smoky Valley up by 28 at half, 45-17. A 23-12 second half sealed a 39-point win for the Vikings, which was their largest margin of victory on the season. The 68 points scored were also a season high. Kristian Ryan had his fifth 20-plus point game of the season, scoring a game-high 23 points on 11-14 shooting. Atticus Pavlovich added a career high with 13 points for the Vikings and Ty Heitschmidt finished with 12 points. Smoky Valley registered their sixth consecutive win over the Panthers, moving to 5-3 overall and 1-0 in the CKL. Nickerson was led by Austin Peterson with nine points as they dropped to 2-10 and 0-3 in the league.
SV – Ryan 23, Pavlovich 13, Heitschmidt 12, Burgardt 9, Olson 6, Carlson 3, Robledo-Diaz 2
Nickerson – Peterson 9, R. Morrell 6, Brawner 5, Smith 4, Clifford 3, Ch. Welch 2
