Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
The season may have ended sooner than they had wanted, but the Valley Lutheran girls basketball team can still reflect on a solid 2011-12 basketball season.
The Chargers finished the campaign 22-3 overall, going 13-1 in the TVC West, tying with Carrollton for the title.
On March 8 their season came to an end, falling to Nouvel Catholic Central 36-34 in the regional finals. Valley Lutheran had topped Nouvel 64-37 in the teams’ matchup on February 4, making the loss all the more difficult to handle.
“It ended too soon,” VL head coach Tom Roekle said. “We were hoping to win a state title and didn’t make it that far.”
The Chargers, who lost in last year’s class C quarterfinals, appeared to have control of the game early on, taking a 9-4 lead after the first and an 18-13 edge at the half, before a Panther rally in the second half knocked out VL.
“Nouvel packed it in and dared us to hit our shots,” Roekle said. “We were 12 for 38 for the game. For a team that shot 47 percent from two and 34 percent from three on the year, we needed to hit a few more shots.
“It always is [tough to end the year],” Roekle added. “Only four girls’ teams in the state end the season with a win. We’d like to be one of those four teams every year.”
The Chargers will lose four seniors to graduation: Kara Engelhardt, Sarah Treiber, Devyn Clark, and Sarah Appold. Though the seniors were the core to Valley Lutheran’s recent success, Roekle feels they can continue their solid play next year.
“We need to prepare well during the off-season,” he said. “If each girl takes the time to play some ball regularly over the summertime, I’m sure we’ll be competitive again next season.”