SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - Only days after the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association hatched a plan to keep shrinking schools like South Tahoe from playing larger schools like Douglas, the Vikings pulled a shocker Friday night.
Winless in their previous five Sierra League games, the Vikings put on a rebound and defensive clinic in beating Douglas 41-28 in South Lake Tahoe.
"This is huge," said Alexis Holmes, repeating herself to indicate how important the win was. "It's not that we can't, but it's population. They sometimes can't judge a school by how big it is."
Holmes led the Vikings with 14 points, but she wanted to talk more about the rebounding performance turned in by teammate Tori Lenstrom. Lenstrom grabbed 12 boards, keeping the Tigers from making the easy buckets they needed to draw closer.
"Tori has been working really hard in practice, and it showed out there tonight," Holmes said. "She had Jen (Lenstrom) hacking on her in practice, and she got so frustrated that she boxed her out every time."
Also for the Vikings, Alexis Nunes-Fenley contributed nine points and Terra Backinger six.
For Douglas, which got as close as 35-25 late in the fourth quarter on a Tia Lyons' three-pointer, Katie Dry was high scorer with seven points. Ebony Cleveland and Nejae Jackson added six points.
The Vikings made a late run last year, and Holmes thinks they are capable of it again.
"Absolutely, I think we can," she said.
South Tahoe will play at Carson on Tuesday.
