Vikings get road win

ATCHISON, Kan. -- The smallest player on the court packed the biggest wallop Saturday for the Missouri Valley College men's basketball team.

Sophomore Josh Boswell, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound guard from Cedar Hill, Texas, scored a career-high 26 points as the Vikings claimed an 83-71 Heart of America Conference road win at Benedictine. Boswell, who wasn't available during the first semester, has produced double figures in six straight games.

Valley trailed by as many as nine points during the first half, but scored the last 15 points of the period -- none by Boswell -- to take a 33-27 lead into the break.

A put-back by senior Rouven Haenig and junior Roc Rogers transition bucket got the second half off to a flying start for the Vikings. After Haenig hit from outside and senior Brandon Toliver connected in the paint, the cushion was 16 points.

But the good times wouldn't last for Valley. The Ravens went on a 27-11 run over the next seven minutes, senior Drew Huppe scoring seven points early in the spree and senior Dave Goettelmann knocking down a pair of three-pointers later.

Sophomore Robert Williams' lay-up tied the game with 7:15 remaining. Senior Craig Jones put the Vikings in front two minutes later and Boswell struck from downtown for a four-point edge, which grew to six points on Rogers' follow shot with 2:01 to go.

Valley sealed the victory by making 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch.

Huppe and senior Chris Henton each scored 16 points for BC (4-12, 2-7 HAAC).

The Vikings (7-9, 3-7) had dropped seven of their previous eight league contests, including all four at home, shot 50.0 percent from the field -- only 0.8 percent off their season best. Haenig and Jones each tallied 13 points.

Earlier, the Benedictine women clung to their top spot in the conference standings with an 82-64 win over the Lady Vikings.

The Lady Ravens already owned a seven-point lead six minutes into the contest when freshman Kelsey Wolfe and junior Christina Reischl landed bombs.

Valley sliced the deficit to five points on junior Jordanne Walker's trey and a pair of inside buckets from junior MaCall Budke, but Reischl again found the range from outside and senior Lacy Leonard made three shots during a 15-4 run which allowed Benedictine to go into the second half with a 13-point advantage.

The Lady Vikings had one more charge left in them, a 16-4 surge which junior Jessica Francka kicked off with two jumpers.

However, senior Sydni Kovac hit a three and sophomore Kaela Stratman got loose inside to put the Lady Ravens up by 10 points and they out-scored the visitors 19-8 the rest of the way.

Senior Abby Winder's 19 points and eight rebounds pave the way for Benedictine (12-7, 8-1), which had won six of its last seven games.

Senior Ashley Sequeira had a game-high 23 points, eight boards and three blocked shots for the Lady Vikings (4-17, 2-8).

Valley will be at home Thursday against Central Methodist