The North Kitsap High School girls basketball team took control of the game early on against Sequim Jan. 10 and never looked back, winning 54-23.

With the win, the Vikings moved to 9-4 overall and 5-1 in the Olympic League, one game back of first-place Bainbridge.

“[It’s] kind of been the first time for me here at North Kitsap where we’ve had plenty of girls that like to score,” NK coach Karla DeVries said. “In the past, I’ve had girls be timid and now they love it [scoring].”

The Vikings got off to a hot start in the first quarter, generating fastbreak points through forced turnovers and controlling the ball for the majority of the period.

The Wolves’ field goal percentage from the get-go was lackluster, only netting two field goals and five points in the first quarter as a whole while the Vikings were able to connect on a majority of their shots, scoring a total of 23 points.

NK’s defense proved to be a force from the very beginning of the game, playing tight on Sequim and producing many points off of turnovers.

Nonetheless, both teams began to struggle to score in the beginning of the second quarter. The Vikings and the Wolves both began to play more aggressive defense in hopes of generating more consistent offense, but the Vikings continued to manage to hold on to their lead.

The Vikings outscored the Wolves in the second period by two points, six to four.

NK jumped out to its largest lead of the night at 21 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter despite Sequim finding an offensive spark at the beginning of the period.

Viking senior forward Teegan DeVries kicked off the scoring for the Vikings at the beginning of the fourth with a fastbreak layup, allowing NK to go on a 9-0 run all within one minute of play. NK pushed its lead to 31 after sophomore forward Samantha Lindsay’s two-point field goal.