By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star

A slow start didn’t keep the Niles varsity basketball team from picking up its second straight victory Friday night.

The Lady Vikings outscored Lakeshore 26-15 in the second half to pull away to a 57-29 Big 16 Conference West Division victory.

Niles got off to a bit of a slow start, but still managed to outscore Lakeshore 17-4 in the opening quarter only to have the Lady Lancers come storming back in the second period.

Lakeshore cut the Niles advantage down to 19-14 before Nichole Sly’s 3-pointer ignited a run for the Lady Vikings that turned into a 31-14 halftime advantage.

In the third quarter Niles outscored Lakeshore 15-10 to open up a 46-24 lead heading to the final stanza.

“Our strategy coming out was that we thought we could press them and force some turnovers,” Niles coach Patrick Touhey said. “It backfired because they were handling our press fairly well. So we got out of that and went into our standard half court pressure man-to-man defense, which I think flustered them a bit.”

Touhey said that the run just before halftime and the way his team came out of the locker room to start the second half was good to see.

“What we told our kids is we need to respond to that,” he said. “If we want to do what we really need to do tonight we need to respond to that. What we did that I was very proud of is that last four minutes before the half we kicked up our transition game to a whole other gear and Nichole was just getting to basket, which helped us.

“The other thing I was proud of was the energy that the kids came out with to start the third quarter. What I really like about these kids is they have a killer’s mentality. They wanted to take care of business and I think when they came out in the third quarter they really took care of business.”

Sly led all scorers with 14 points, while Jenna Grannell added 12 points and Alex McIntee, who hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening quarter, finished with 10 points.

Sly also grabbed 13 rebounds, dished out eight assists and had two steals. McIntee, Gabby Ezell and Grannell each had four rebounds.

Kaitlin Cornwell and Christina Welch, who both scored six points, led Lakeshore.

The Lady Vikings are back in action on Tuesday night as they take on host Berrien Springs in a non-conference contest.

LAKESHORE 29
Emily LaManna 0 0-0 0; Kaitlin Cornwell 2 0-2 6; Nina Amicarelli 0 0-0 0; Regan Gollehur 2 0-0 5; Heather Gusse 1 0-0 3; Lindsay McNair 1 0-0 2; Cam Tyler 1 0-0 2; Christina Welch 2 2-4 6; Stephanie Eagle 1 3-7 5; Rachel Zwar 0 0-0 0; Jillian Buckleitner 0 0-0 0; Cara Sandmann 0 0-0 0; Colleen Carson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 9 5-13 29
NILES 57
Savannah Wolnik 3 3-4 9; Alex McIntee 3 2-2 10; Brittany Buti 0 1-2 1; Gabby Ezell 2 3-3 7; Maureen Craig 0 0-4 0; Nichole Sly 5 3-8 14; Whitney Ellis 2 0-0 4; Taylor Glick 0 0-0 0; Jenna Grannell 5 2-4 12; Kelsey Crago 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 14-27 57

Lakeshore 4 14 24 29
Niles 17 31 46 57
3-point baskets: Lakeshore 3 (Cornwell 2, Gollehur 1), Niles 3 (McIntee 2, Sly 1). Total fouls: Lakeshore 16, Niles 17. Fouled out: Ellis (N).