VALLEY CITY, N.D. – Valley City had four players in double figures, and held Providence University College to 29 percent shooting in a 98-51 win over the Pilots Saturday, sweeping the weekend to open the season.

The Vikings are 2-0 on the season. The Pilots are 0-2.

Providence scored first when Faith LaRocque hit a three-pointer nine seconds into the game to give the Pilots a 3-0 lead. That would be the only lead they would have the rest of the game. Abby Aslesen scored inside about a minute later to give the Vikings the lead for good at 4-3 with 8:57 to go in the first quarter. A couple of free throws by Aslesen would cap a 6-0 run by the Vikings to make it 6-3. The Pilots hung with the Vikings for most of the first quarter. The largest lead VCSU would have was eleven points. That came on a bucket inside by Liz Lukken that made it 16-5 with 4:45 to go in the quarter. Providence would get the lead down to six by the end of the quarter, 20-14. LaRocque had ten of her teams 14 points in the first quarter.

The Vikings started to pull away in the second quarter when they started the quarter on a 20-2 run, including 18 unanswered points. Valley City State held the Pilots to just two free throws in the first 5:41 of the quarter. Behind balanced scoring, the Vikings would out score Providence 31-6 in the quarter to take a 51-20 lead at halftime. Aslesen scored eleven of her 13 points in the first half.

The third quarter was a high scoring quarter for both teams. The Pilots would start the quarter on a 9-2 run to pull to within 23 points. A basket by Adrian Alley made it 52-29 Vikings with 7:54 to go in the third quarter. Providence would outscore the Vikings in the quarter 24-22. Valley City State would get the last two points of the quarter to make the score 73-44 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Valley City State would use a 16-0 run to start the quarter to put more distance between themselves and the Pilots. A fastbreak bucket by Lukken off a Delaney Cotton steal would start the run for VCSU. Lukken would then assist on Tilda Mauritzson basket to end the run and make the score 89-44 Vikings with 6:33 to go in the fourth quarter. The Vikings outscored the Pilots 25-7 in the fourth quarter as Providence made just three of 19 shots in the quarter while the Vikings hit on 11 of 16 from the floor.

Liz Lukken led the Vikings with a career high 20 points. Abby Aslesen and Tilda Mauritzson each had 13 points. Aslesen would add five rebounds. Aubrey Prunty had twelve points, six rebounds and four assists.  Olivia Backus and Sophie Bachmeier each had eight points. Backus added four assists and three steals. Madison Spacher, Tiyana Schwinghammer, and Ellie Powell scored six points each. Powell added a team high seven rebounds. Schwinghammer filled the stat sheet with five rebounds, four assists and three steals to go with her six points. Ellie Braaten and Delaney Cotton chipped ion three points each and Cotton added three steals while Braaten had two blocks.

NEXT UP: The Vikings host the University of Minnesota-Morris on Tuesday night, November 4^th as part of a Men's and Women's doubleheader. The Women tipoff at 5:30 p.m. while the Men will follow at 7:30 p.m.