Parkway North girls get set to play league game at Parkway Central

The Parkway North girls basketball girls are fresh off winning the Parkway Central Invitational and jump back into action against archrival Parkway Central.

The Vikings defeated defending tourney champion Jennings 59-32 to win the Invitational to improve to 13-6 on the season. The tournament championship was the second for the Vikings in the past four year. Parkway North topped Jennings in the 2009 title game and fell to Ursuline in the 2010 final.

Parkway North plays at Parkway Central in a 7 p.m. Friday (Feb. 3).

“It’s always a big game when North plays Central,” Vikings coach Will Young said. “We beat them to open the season, way back in late November, but that was an extremely competitive game.”

The Vikings that game 55-44.

This time, Young said his girls will have to be ready again for the 10-11 Colts.

“They’ve got a couple of really tough kids at the forward positions,” Young said. “We’re going to have to keep them from getting easy catches inside, including keeping them off of the offensive boards.”

The Vikings have some momentum heading into the rivalry clash. Parkway North has won six games in a row, including three wins in the Invitational.

“We’ve had some success in the Parkway Central tournament over the last few years,” Young said. “We like the tournament because we get to compete with some teams that aren’t already on our schedule.  Actually, Parkway Central is the only one that we face outside of this tournament.”

After losing by four points last year to Jennings, the Vikings were pleased to have a shot at them again this year.

“I think they were excited.  We have a lot of returners from last year’s team, and you always remember losing a tournament championship,” Young said.

The coaching staff had scouted Jennings “a few times,” but Warriors play a “man defense,” and that’s not something the Vikings see often.

“So the girls had very little to go on in terms of what to expect,” Young said. “We had to be ready to stop dribble penetration, and still close out to defend three-point shooters.”

Junior Naomi Bryant led the Vikings with a game-high 21 points. She also pulled down 14 rebounds to spark Parkway North.

It was a great win for the Vikings, Young said.

“It definitely ranks up there, but we’ve been playing well in general lately, with one or two hiccups,” Young said.

Bryant is a small forward for the Vikings and her total was just two points off her career high.

“She’s an undersized forward for us,” Young said. “Naomi is a great kid who actually started out in our freshman program as a guard two years ago, and has made a nice adjustment to playing underneath the basket. She has good hands and outstanding athleticism.

“She doesn’t always work for position like she should on rebounds, but she still out-jumps people.”

Junior Amber Alexander scored 14 points and added seven assists.

“Amber is usually our leading scorer, and when she isn’t it’s usually her passing that helps someone else score,” Young said. “She had seven assists along with guarding Jennings’ best player.”

Alexander just passed the 1,000-point mark for Parkway North.  She is only the ninth player to do that in school history. She has moved up to No. 6 on the all-time Vikings list of scorers.

Young was happy with how the Vikings defense played.

“Our defense looked good,” Young said. “We were doing a good job of being in help when they did dribble-penetrate.”

At 13-6 overall and 2-1 in Suburban South play, Young said his Vikings are playing well.

“We always believe that the record takes care of itself if we do things the right way,” Young said. “There was a stretch early in the season where we weren’t a quality team because we didn’t consistently do things the right way. I think we’ve gotten better in that regard. The kids have bought in and are playing with some urgency, so we’re pleased with that, but there is a long way to go.”