The Hopkins girls’ varsity basketball team is in the driver’s seat in the O-K Silver Conference championship battle.
The Lady Vikings completed the first round of league competition with a 5-0 record Friday evening by recording a 50-40 victory over Northpointe Christian. The triumph, their eighth in a row, lifted their overall season record to 9-4.
The Viking boys, however, lost 63-54 to Northpointe later in the evening. Their overall season record fell to 7-5.
Hopkins has not lost a girls’ basketball game since Dec. 20 at Hamilton. It started the season slowly, dropping four of its first five contests, but coach John Robinson’s squad has been on fire since.
The Lady Vikings got off to a decent start, leading 10-5 at the end of the first quarter and they were up 21-16 at intermission. The Mustangs crept to within two, 32-30, at the third period buzzer, but Hopkins used an 18-10 burst in the final eight minutes to seal the victory.
Senior guard Brandalyn Helderop led the Lady Vikings’ balanced offensive attack with 14 points, senior forward Mikayla Bulich added a dozen and senior pivot Meghan Schulz scored nine.
Northpointe was led by Baylie van Dyke with 19 points.
Though the O-K Silver has seven schools, Wyoming Lee isn’t fielding a varsity girls’ team this season. So Hopkins has cruised through the first round undefeated and now has undisputed possession of first place.
The Lady Vikings will get a stiff test at home Tuesday night against Plainwell. The boys, meanwhile, will be playing at Plainwell.