Vlkova leads Norwood’s girls to 1A basketball championship
LOVELAND — Lucia Vlkova is going to enjoy living in the United States.
The 6-foot junior forward for Norwood, a foreign exchange student from Slovakia, helped lead the Mavericks to the Class 1A state championship in a thrilling 38-34 victory over Caliche on Saturday at the Budweiser Events Center.
“If I have my family here, I will probably stay,” Vlkova said of her year in America. “I just love it here.”
It’s fair to say coach Greg King is equally happy to have the versatile player in his lineup.
Jordan Williams, a junior guard, has been the go-to player throughout the season for the Mavericks with impressive averages of 16.9 points, 3.9 assists, and 2.8 steals, but Williams needed a sidekick to claim the crown.
Vlkova provided that with 11 points and a dominant defensive performance with several steals, blocks, and deflected passes. Her height, length, and jumper provided a matchup problem for Caliche throughout and she displayed a wildly improved shot.
“You know she has been a project all year,” King said about his growing forward. “She came to us without being a real big offensive threat on her club team. She’s worked and worked, and I’ll tell you what, up here in the regionals and district finals, she’s really blossomed. Jordan Williams has been our key person. She was the MVP of our league. She struggled a little up here, but everybody knew that. Lucia was the unknown.”
Vlkova was critical, but the title was won on the strength of Norwood’s hard-nosed team.
“We call this team a bunch of grinders,” King said. “We just grind out wins, grind out possessions, and against that team we had to. We were aggressive, physical, and we just withstood every attack they had against us, everything they threw at us.”
Caliche wanted to play their typical high-paced style utilizing their speed and guard play, but Norwood controlled the tempo and led by a couple of points most of the game.
“It was a different game for us,” Caliche coach David Huss said. “A lot of that has to do with the level of the game being a state title game I think. It probably weighed on them a little bit.
“A lot of it was Norwood and the style of defense they played. They got us out of our game and we just had a lot of uncanny things happen, just missed layups and miscommunication, and things that never happened before. I don’t have an answer as to why that happened, other than maybe it was the stage we were on.”
Norwood held a 12-8 first quarter lead and were up 22-20 at the halftime break in a defensive battle.
The Buffaloes had a few flashes of their superior speed in transition and were down only three, 34-31, with two minutes and ten seconds remaining. Shaylyn Johnson stole the ball and streaked down court for an open layup, but the ball rimmed out.
Norwood’s Shania Snow drained 4-of-6 at the charity stripe in the final three minutes of play to seal the Mavericks’ first girls basketball state title since 1983 and second in the program’s history.
Jordan Williams came through with five big fourth-quarter points and 12 in the game. Shania Snow chipped in eight.
Jessica Taylor was effective as a low-post scorer with 12 points for Caliche and Shaylyn Johnson, the Buffaloes’ leading scorer this season, had 10 points, but Norwood made a few more plays down the stretch and gutted out a fantastic win.
“We felt that we were going to have to do it defensively,” King said about Norwood’s gameplan against the Buffaloes. “Offensively, we knew that if it was a high-scoring game, it favors them at their pace. For the most part, I think we handled their pressure really well, and it’s just a fantastic feeling.”
King, the girls coach at Norwood for the past four seasons, has now won three state titles in his coaching career with the first two coming as the head boys coach at Stratton. He is the boys coach for Norwood, as well.
“You feel for the kids, because the kids put the work in,” King said. “It’s a great, great reward for what they’ve done for four years. It’s not about me, it’s about them.”
“I was thinking about it all season,” Viukova admitted about the potential for a state title team.
“I think it’s all about the coach,” Viukova argued.
In the end, it was the perfect recipe for a state title at Norwood with great players and great coaching.
