The Valley Central girls’ basketball team got back in the victory column on Thursday night after two tough, back-to-back losses to Monroe-Woodbury, one in overtime and the other by only 3 points. With the exception of a few minutes in the second quarter, the Vikings dominated most of the game, defeating the Wizards by a final score of 67 – 41.

The Wizards were down a couple of their starters going into the contest, but that didn’t mean VC was going to change their approach. “This wasn’t a game we could take for granted, no matter what, even though they didn’t have some of their starters,” said Shaina Cooney, a junior center.

“We had to play just like we would play any other game. You can’t sleep on any team because everyone’s getting better and better. We just have to keep competing until we get to sections.”

Cooney led the Vikings in scoring with 20 points, including 9 field goals. She also had 3 blocked shots. He sister, Erin-Rose Cooney contributed with 9 points and 3 steals. Mackenzie Ross had 10 points and 3 steals. Katie Crofoot had 8 points, while Madeline Feller and Deanna Murdock each had 7 points.

VC cruised for much of the game with the exception of the second quarter. “The second quarter got a little away from us,” said Coach Randy Axtell. “We know Michaela Beyers is their best player, especially tonight because they were missing so many people from injuries.”

Beyers scored 20 points for Washingtonville, including 5 three-pointers.

“We changed our lineup a bit and got off to a relatively good start, and we know we’re playing no-help defense off Michaela. She hit 4 threes in about two and a half minutes on us and I lost my mind a little bit, but then we readjusted and I think we did a great job from there on out,” said Axtell.

“I was very happy with our defensive intensity after that.”

Aside from the 21 points VC allowed in the second quarter, they only allowed Washingtonville to score 5 in the first, 5 in the third and 10 in the fourth quarters. While the defensive and offensive numbers are there, Axtell is hoping the Vikings can get firing on all cylinders, especially when it comes to the full-court press.

“We’re still having some difficulty locating people in our presses. Three people are doing the right thing, one is almost there and one has no idea. If everyone’s not doing their job, we’re not going to succeed, but we’ve been working on it,” he said.

They were able to pick up another victory on Saturday afternoon when they hosted Clarkstown South, winning 58 – 39. On Saturday Katie Crofoot scored 18 points and Deanna Murdock scored 15.

With the two victories, the Vikings improve to 9 – 3 overall and 3 – 0 in their division. Next they will host North Rockland on Friday January 24th at 6:30 p.m.