Sports : Vikette comeback falls short, 54-47

VINTON -- There really is no such thing in sports as a moral victory, but in a lot of ways this loss might have been as close as you can get.

The short-handed Vinton-Shellsburg Vikettes (1-1) charged back from a deep hole late in the fourth quarter, only to have the Maquoketa Cardinals manage to hold them off for a 54-47 WaMaC Conference win Tuesday night at the Garrison Fieldhouse. 

The Vikettes trailed by upwards of 14 at various times in the game and with four minutes left they trailed 45-33 before charging, cutting the lead to 49-46 with just a minute left. But forced to foul down the stretch, the Vikettes would see the Cardinals hit five of six free throws in to hold on for the win.

V-S got a steller performance from senior Taryn Sutton. The senior -- and future Hawkeye RedTail soccer player -- scored 20 points and really took the game on her shoudlers. Lucy Howes-Vonstein -- who drew the bulk of the Maquoketa defensive interest on the night -- added 13 and Kayla Griffith did yeoman's duty at the point with 12 points. 

"Taryn had a great night," said Coach Rich Haisman. "She basically said, 'Hey if you going to take Lucy away from us, I'll do it myself,' and she really did."

A scary moment came midway through the thrid period when junior post Aza Sawyzer went down hard with lower body injury. 

"That was tough," Haisman said. "Hopefully she'll up and better soon; Aza is a great player and also a great teammate."

The Vikettes are back in action Thursday night when they open a girls/boys doubleheader at the Fieldhouse against the Union Knights beginning at 6 p.m. Friday night they take the road to Solon to take on the Spartans.Game pictures can be found here!