ELIZABETHVILLE — A 2-0 start and a tip-off tournament championship victory over a close rival — not a bad way to start the season for Williams Valley and Brian Unger, entering his second stint as the Vikings’ head coach.
Still, like any early-season win, Unger found room for improvement in Williams Valley’s 67-46 victory over Upper Dauphin on Saturday night in the Upper Dauphin Tip-Off Tournament.
“A win’s a win,” said Unger, entering his 14th overall season as head coach after assisting for
Christina Thompson. “I’m not 100 percent happy with it. It’s early though. We’re 2-0. It’s a good start.”
The Vikings put some distance between themselves and the Trojans just a few minutes into the game by means of an effective full-court press. Upper Dauphin coughed the ball up four times on the trap and the Vikings cashed each one in for points.
Williams Valley extended a 10-8 lead to 19-8 by the end of the first quarter thanks to a nine-point run highlighted by Kate Whelski’s 3-pointer — one of her three Saturday.
“We’ve mostly been working on half-court stuff, but I thought we could force them into some turnovers if we extended the floor a little bit,” Unger said. “We got a long way to go. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”
Whelski finished with a game-high 22 points, including hitting 5-of-9 from the free-throw line, and added two steals and a block.
Whelski is one of four starters back for Williams Valley. She’s joined by sisters Hannah and Haley Nestor and point guard Rayanne Hawk.
All four picked up where they left off last season, when they reached the District 11 Class A semifinals.
“We’ve definitely become closer as a team,” Hawk said. “We run the floor very well together.”
Hawk especially. She had 10 points, seven steals and three assists in command of the Williams Valley point.
Haley Nestor tallied 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds while Hannah scored eight points.
“It’s tough to play down here,” Unger said. “They’re somewhat our rivals. We try and pride ourself on defense and rebounding and running the floor, which I think we did better in the second half.”
The Vikings forced 22 turnovers all evening and committed 13 themselves.
Upper Dauphin (1-1) pulled within 29-20 at halftime on senior guard Taylor Brown’s eight points in the frame, six of which came from the charity stripe.
Brown finished with a team-high 18 points but was held to just six in the second half.
“She shoulders a lot of the responsibility with the ball-handling and the other teams know that,” Upper Dauphin coach Rich Hoffman said of Brown. “Then we end up turning the ball over inexplicably sometimes. Hopefully we’ll correct that and it won’t happen so much.”
Despite having a height advantage, the Trojans struggled on the glass. Jenna Daniel joined Haley Nestor with nine rebounds for the Vikings, a lot of those coming in a pivotal third quarter that saw Williams Valley outscore Upper Dauphin 21-11.
“I really felt we held them from getting out on the break,” Hoffman said. “They like to run. We hung in there and kept (the deficit) around eight and 10 points for a lot of the game. I thought we had a shot at it and then it just got away from us in the second half.”
Whelski’s final 3-pointer with 2:27 to play in the third quarter put the Vikings ahead 45-25, and the Trojans struggled to narrow that gap in the final stanza.
Upper Dauphin earlier Saturday defeated Mount Calvary Christian 47-28 in the tournament. Laura Sweger led the Trojans with 10 points and Brown had nine.
Game Summaries
WILLIAMS VALLEY (67) — Hawk 4 2-3 10, Han. Nestor 2 4-7 8, Kreiser 1 1-2 3, Hal. Nestor 4 6-9 14, Whelski 7 5-9 22, Daniel 0 0-0 0, Schadle 2 0-2 4, Pinchorski 3 0-0 6, Ancheff 0 0-0 0, Raho 0 0-0 0, Updegrove 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 18-32 67.
UPPER DAUPHIN (46) — J. Hoffman 2 0-0 4, K. Hoffman 2 2-2 6, Sweger 1 1-6 3, Brown 5 8-10 18, Koppenhaver 1 1-2 3, Walker 2 4-4 8, Bellis 0 0-0 0, Uhler 0 0-0 0, Mills 1 0-0 2, Weaver 1 0-0 2, Shoop 0 0-0 0, Shomper 0 0-0 0, Jury 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 16-24 46.
Wm. Val. (2-0) 19 10 21 17 — 67 UDA (1-1) 8 12 11 15 — 46
3-point FGs: Whelski 3
MT. CALVARY CHRISTIAN (28) — Allebach 0 1-4 1, Berkley-Higgs 0 2-3 2, Ewing 1 1-2 3, Martin 0 0-0 0, Maulfair 0 0-0 0, Ober 0 0-0 0, Ab. Rutt 3 6-9 12, Al. Rutt 0 1-8 1, Shirk 4 0-2 9. Totals 8 11-28 28.
UPPER DAUPHIN (47) — Bellis 2 2-2 6, Brown 4 1-4 9, J. Hoffman 2 0-0 4, K. Hoffman 2 0-0 4, Koppenhaver 2 3-4 7, Mills 1 0-0 2, Shomper 0 1-2 1, Sweger 5 0-0 10, Uhler 0 0-0 0, Walker 1 0-0 2, Weaver 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 7-12 47.
Mt. Calv (0-2) 8 12 2 6 — 28 UDA (1-0) 13 8 16 10 — 47
3-point FGs: Shirk