Friday night, Feb. 22, the DVC women’s basketball team capped off the regular season with a convincing victory over American River College 70-62. The win was the Lady Vikings’ fifth in a row, giving them a full head of steam entering the playoffs.

In a back and forth first half, neither team was able garner up enough momentum to sustain a comfortable lead. The Vikings were able to manufacture points, but surrendered enough offensive rebounds and second chance points, that they were forced to change defensive looks from a man to man defense to a zone defense. Over the course of the game, this proved to work out in their favor. The Vikings went into halftime trailing American River 35-33.

Head coach Ramaundo Vaughn attributed the Vikings lack of first half success to the collective effort of the team. “In the first half, it was like we were sleep-walking. We just weren’t playing hard, and that’s not who we are. Give credit to American River. They came out focused and played harder than we did in the first half,” he said.

Whatever coach Vaughn said to his players at halftime surely resonated well, as the Vikings came out with a completely different level of intensity in the second half. They were ferocious in attacking the offensive boards, getting to the foul line early and often. Sophomore TyJae Chenevert was a force to be reckoned with, controlling the paint. Suddenly, the tables turned and the Vikings were the team scoring the second chance points. Four Lady Vikings scored double figures, constituting a balanced scoring attack, which was led by Freshman Karley Menez who totaled a game-high 22 points.

“The effort, the focus, and the intensity overall were there in the second half. In the first half, there wasn’t anything in particular we weren’t doing. Our adjustment was simply just to play harder, and we did,” said Vaughn.

The impressive second half effort led to the Vikings forcing a lot of turnovers on defense and cashing in on the other end with easy transition buckets. Midway through the second half, they went on an impressive 15-2 run, imposing their will on the American River defense and building a sizable lead. From that point on, the Lady Vikings never looked back.

“The positive thing is we’ve won five straight now and from my understanding we have the best record the school’s ever had (women’s). You want to go into the playoffs on a high, a winning note, and we’ve done that,” said Vaughn.

They will take that five game winning streak into the playoffs and host a game this Friday or Saturday. Their playoff opponent has not been determined yet, but the Vikings are determined to make some noise and bring a championship home.