The victory was the second in four days for the Lady Tigers, who had knocked off Keys on Tuesday night.
“I’m tickled to death because we’ve got two wins against the largest schools in our conference and that’s a huge confidence-builder for us,” said Central head coach Scott Lowe, whose team improved to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the league.
The Lady Tigers sank nine three-pointers in the game. Sophomore guard Lindsey Woody hit four of those on the way to a team-high 17 points. Brenda Branham sank two and finished with 14 points, while Cydney Dillard drilled three treys and scored 13 points. Jessica Ruark, Emily Owens, Jacklyn Jiles and Hayley Tanner added four points apiece and Brittany Callahan scored one for Central.
Kiona O’Neal led Vian (5-2) with a game-high 20 points. Jessica Brunson added 10, Alyx Sovo nine, LeiLoni Smith seven and Ashley Hooper one.
Lowe said Central tried to play the game at a fast pace in order to neutralize Vian‘s size advantage.
“We pressed the whole game with some zone and some man-to-man pressure. We’d rather them run than be real deliberate. We gave up some points off our press, but it put the game at a tempo we needed more than they did,” said Lowe. “We really felt confident going into the game because we gained a lot of confidence at Keys. Nobody expected us to win this game, but when you have kids who can shoot and play good defense, you can win games no matter how little you are.”
Vian 76, Central 64 (B)
The Wolverines will enter the holiday break undefeated, thanks to a hard-fought win at Central on Friday night.
Vian improved to 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big Eight Conference as Dylan Taylor poured in a game-high 33 points to lead the visitng Wolverines.
“We won by 12, but it was a lot closer game than the scored indictaes,” said Vian head coach David Crow. “This is a tough gym to play in. Central is a well-coached team and they were well-prepared. We didn‘t expect them to be as aggressive as they were, especially in the first half. They played hard, but our kids came out and hooked up in the second half.”
Vian standout Tyren Knight was hampered by foul trouble and sat out most of the second and third quarters, but Taylor stepped up in his absence. The junior guard scored 11 points in the second period as the teams battled to a 39-39 deadlock. In the third quarter, Taylor netted 11 more points to give the Wolverines a 56-50 lead.
John Steely finished with 13 points for Vian, while Colby Ross and Tyren Samuels scored seven each, Knight six, Justin Blackbird four and Hunter Spencer four.
Central (2-4) was paced by J. Johnson with 19 points. Trey Rogers and Colton Coleman both added 15, Blake Rogers nine and Kyler Ekberg three for the Tigers.
