BENTON HARBOR — The Niles girls’ varsity basketball team captured the Southwest Michigan Athletic Conference West Division championship on Friday night with a 44-26 victory over host Benton Harbor.

It’s the first championship for the Vikings since the 2003-2004 season.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our kids because when you look at the West Division of our conference this year and the parity that existed. I have been the coach three years and I have seen many Niles games as a fan and I can’t remember the last time there were so many good teams in the West Division hunt. One of four teams could have easily won this conference, that’s how tough it was,” said Viking coach Patrick Touhey.

The game didn’t start out well for the Vikings however.

Despite most of the Benton Harbor seniors being benched, a decision made by their coach Lisa Harvey and school administration prior to the game, the Tigers came out fighting, trying to prevent the Vikings from clinching the division title on the Tigers’ home court.

Benton Harbor built an 8-4 lead in the first quarter, but a 3-point basket by the Vikings’ Maureen Craig cut the lead to 8-7 at the end of the first period. Niles received four points from senior Nichole Sly to round out the Vikings scoring for the period.

The second quarter was all Niles on both ends of the floor.

The Vikings outscored the Tigers 14-0 in the second quarter on their way to a 21-8 halftime advantage.

Niles (14-6) switched to a full court press on defense hoping to cause some turnovers and create some easy baskets, which it did, as 10 scored 10 points in a 50-second stretch to build the lead to 17-8. On the offensive end they switched to a spread the floor and run the clock style of offense.

“The press was to try and get some turnovers and easy baskets, and we succeeded, slowing it down offensively, well we don’t have a lot of depth, it was hot in there, and so we wanted to press, but also give the girls a chance to rest on the offensive end,” said Touhey.

Savannah Wolnik scored all six of her points in the second quarter, while Sly contributed eight of her game-high 19.

After the intermission, Benton Harbor’s Kayla Dumas scored the first four points of the third period to cut the Niles lead to 21-12, but back-to-back 3-point baskets by Craig and Sly killed the momentum that the Tigers were trying to build, and Niles was back up 27-12.

With Niles running a stall-type offense, there was not a lot of scoring for the last four minutes of the third quarter, but once again Craig drained a 3-point bomb with time running down in the quarter to give Niles the 32-18 advantage heading into the final period.

Niles would outscore the Tigers 12-8 in the final period on its way to the victory and their first conference title since 2004.

Craig would connect on her fourth long range bomb of the game and Whitney Ellis would score four points in the quarter for the Vikings, but once again it was Sly leading the way for Niles.

Sly connected on 4-of-6 free throws in the quarter, but it was her ball handling, her aggressiveness to the basket and her ability to just take over the game that was key tonight for the Vikings.

The big billing coming into the game was Sly, averaging 19.4 points per game, going against Benton Harbor’s Damonica Buford who was averaging 19.3. Despite missing some shots, Sly was able to get her average as she netted 19. Buford however was completely shut down as she scored her only two points of the game from the free throw line, with just over three minutes left to play in the game.

“I wish I could take credit for that (holding Buford to two points), but actually my assistant coaches Skip Miller and Pat Brandstatter worked all week long on how to control Buford and the strategy we had in place was to not let her get the ball back once she let go of it, and to squeeze the paint so she couldn’t get to the hole, and the girls executed it to perfection,” said Touhey.

Sly’s 19 points gives her 1,000 for her career placing her fourth on the all-time list at Niles behind Sarah Dreher 1205, Brande Radde 1164 and Timothia Clemmer 1078.

Niles wraps up their regular season with a record of 14-6, and will host Kalamazoo Central on Monday night in the first round of the girls Class A District tournament.

“We didn’t play our best basketball game in the world tonight, but I new before I left the locker room prior to the game that it was going to take something miraculous to deny these girls the conference championship,” Touhey said.

The win, and the conference championship may have come with a hefty price however. Already playing without senior Alexis McIntee, Niles lost Savannah Wolnik midway through the final period with an ankle injury. The extent of the injury is not yet known.

The Vikings were led by Sly with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists, while Craig chipped in 12 points four assists and four steals. Wolnik had six before leaving the game with the injured ankle.

Benton Harbor was led by Dumas with eight points, Nashaye Sutton with seven and Deseray Grant with five.

NILES 44

Starr Ford 0 0-0 0, Savannah Wolnik 2 2-2 6; Brittani Glenn 0 0-0 0; Maureen Craig 5 0-0 12; Nichole Sly 7 4-10 19; Whitney Ellis 2 0-0 4; Taylor Glick 0 1-2 1; Lexie Arnold 0 0-0 0; Michelle Briand 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 16 7-14 44

BENTON HARBOR 26

Damonica Buford 0 2-2 2; Nashaye Sutton 3 0-0 7; Kayla Dumas 4 0-0 8; Deseray Grant 2 0-0 5; Asia Buford 2 0-0 4; Ashley Lewis 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 2-2 26

Niles 7 21 32 44

Benton Harbor 8 8 18 26

3-point baskets: Niles 5 (Craig 4, Sly 1), Benton Harbor 2 (Sutton, Grant). Total fouls: Niles 7, Benton Harbor 12. Fouled out: None. Varsity records: Niles 14-6, Benton Harbor 5-15