MENTONE - Rarely can a team survive a quarter in which it makes only one field goal.

Not only did Valley survive that in the girls basketball opener on Thursday, the Vikings outscored Bremen by nine points in the third quarter on their way to a 59-41 victory Thursday.

Leading 24-19 at the half, Valley outscored Bremen 10-1 as the Lions were even colder from the floor. Bremen missed all nine of their field goal attempts and made only one of four free throws. Valley point guard Rhonda Doud, who had just two points on four shots in the first half, scored eight points in the quarter as Valley went ahead 34-20.

"At halftime, we talked about the first four or five minutes of the third quarter," Valley head coach Mike Walters said. "I thought then we took over, because our defense really picked it up. We got some turnovers and that's what really helped us."

Doud came out of the locker room on fire as she connected on a pair of free throws and then knocked down a three-pointer, the only basket of the quarter by either team, to put Valley ahead 29-19. She had three more free throws in the quarter, and Bremen could not score until the 1:11 mark of the quarter as the Vikings went into the fourth quarter leading by 14.

"In the first quarter, I thought (Doud) played very tentatively," Walters said. "She was not relaxed. She just gradually got better and better and took charge. She has some big shoes to fill with Kara Tucker, because Kara did a lot for us. But I thought Rhonda, in the second half, really stepped it up and played well."

In the final eight minutes, senior center Andria Parker made two layups in the first 40 seconds as Valley went ahead 38-20.

But Bremen was not quite done. Over the next three minutes, the Valley defense, which forced 31 turnovers on the game, went quiet as the Lions scored 16 points, seven from Lori Coffel, to close the score to 40-34. However, Doud scored a basket and Brooke Fisher knocked down two free throws to push the lead back up to 10 points and Valley rolled from there.

Doud ended the game with a team-high 14 points. She also had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Parker led an impressive interior passing game by Valley's big people with 11 points, four assists, and six rebounds. But Walters found the depth of his team to be equally important to Valley's pressing defense and running offense.

"Jenny Day had an excellent game off the bench," Walters said. "They all went out and gave us some good quality minutes. We're trying to make it a full-court game. To be able to do that, we have to have eight to 10 people that can go out and contribute every game."

Bonnie Bickel sparked Valley's struggling offense in the first half with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting to help the Vikings to the five-point halftime lead.

The first quarter was a see-saw battle that saw Valley take a 9-8 lead after the first eight minutes.

Bremen led 10-9 in the second quarter until Bickel hit a jumper and Brandi Fisher canned a three-pointer to give the Vikings a 14-10 lead that they would never relinquish.

Valley (1-0) will host Warsaw Nov. 21 at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]