By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star

Despite picking up two early fouls, Niles point guard Nichole Sly stayed in the game pretty much the entire way Tuesday night and led the Vikings to a 61-44 victory over visiting Coldwater.

Unlike Niles’ previous game against Mattawan, when Sly spent a great deal of time on the bench, Vikings coach Patrick Touhey decided to let his junior standout remain on the floor.

Sly responded by not picking up another foul in the contest and scored a game-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor and 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

She also dished out seven assists, had five steals and grabbed four rebounds.

“It’s such a hard decision,” Touhey said following the game. “In the normal course of things you’ve got to put her on the bench and have her for the second half. But when it comes to Nichole and how she controls the game it’s hard for me to make that decision (to sit her in the second quarter). I also trust that Nichole is smart enough and played the game enough to know how to play with two fouls. I’ve gambled more often than not this year when she’s in foul trouble and 99.9 percent of the time she does know how to play with fouls.”

After a quick start, the Vikings found themselves in a 9-9 game with the scrappy Cardinals.
Touhey called for a timeout to make sure everyone knew who they were supposed to be guarding.

The timeout seemed to work as Niles outscored Coldwater 10-5 over the remainder of the opening quarter and led 19-14.

The Vikings (11-4) increased their lead to 31-23 at halftime, but Touhey and company were anything but happy with the first half performance.

Niles went with a zone defense against the Cardinals most of the second half and the switch seemed to pay off.

Coldwater struggled to get off shots against the Vikings’ zone and Niles began to pull away.

The Vikings took a 44-34 lead into the fourth quarter and then scored 17 points to put the game out of reach.

Alex McInee scored a career-high 18 points in the game, which proved to be the difference according to Touhey.

“Alex has always had the potential to score,” Touhey said. “She doesn’t always look to score as much as she probably needs to. She’s a very unselfish player. When she got into a rhythm early, I was hoping that she would take it upon herself to shoot more tonight which she did.”

Niles also got seven points each from Maureen Craig and Jenna Grannell.

Coldwater was led by Sonya Bowers, who netted eight points.

Niles hits the road Friday night for a Big 16 Conference West Division game against Lakeshore.

The Cardinals did win both the freshmen and junior varsity contests.

Coldwater defeated Niles 52-24 in the freshmen game and 44-16 in the JV game.

Karon Nichols led the Vikings’ freshmen team with 14 points. Hannah Porterfield and Sarah Cramer each grabbed six rebounds.

Michelle Briand had 11 points for the Niles JV.

COLDWATER 44
Opal Farwell 0 0-2 0; Sonya Bowers 3 0-0 8; Alissa Herlan 2 0-0 6; Abigail Fulmer 2 0-0 4; Querubin Dubois 3 1-2 8; Rebecca Peck 3 0-0 6; Ashley Burkhardt 3 0-0 6; Hayley Wuori 2 0-0 4; Erika Rockwell 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19 1-4 44
NILES 61
Savannah Wolnik 0 3-4 3; Starr Ford 0 0-0 0; Alex McIntee 6 3-4 18; Brittany Buti 0 0-0 0; Gabby Ezell 0 1-2 1; Maureen Craig 3 0-0 7; Nichole Sly 8 8-8 24; Whitney Ellis 0 0-0 0; Taylor Glick 0 1-2 1; Jenna Grannell 3 1-4 7; Kelsey Crago 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 17-24 61

Coldwater 14 23 34 44
Niles 19 31 44 61
3-point baskets: Coldwater 5 (Bowers 2, Herlan 2, Dubois 1), Niles 4 (McIntee 3, Craig 1), Total fouls: Coldwater 15, Niles 7. Fouled out: None. Varsity record: Niles 11-4