Photo by Bill Roseberry
Viktoria Johnson
Viktoria Johnson couldn’t have asked for a better way to start her senior season with the Granite City girls basketball team on Nov. 28.
Johnson finished with her first double-digit performance of her 4-year career, pouring in 13 points to lead the Warriors to a season-opening 46-41 win over the Madison Trojans at Memorial Gymnasium. She scored on a conventional three-point play late in the fourth quarter to give Granite City the lead for good.
“Honestly, I didn’t know how it was going to go since it was our first time (on the court this season),” Johnson said. “We have a young team. It was nerve-wracking. At first, we were all over the place. But throughout the game, we settled down and ended up winning that game, so I was pretty excited.”
Johnson’s senior year took off from there. She scored in double digits four more times and finished as one of the team’s top scorers at 6.5 points per game. She also was the team’s leader in assists with 47.
She was the Warriors’ lone senior this year. She’s the only returning player from last year’s team that lost four players to graduation, including all-stater Addaya Moore, who played at the University of Illinois this winter.
“I had a lot of fun, considering it was just me as a senior this year,” Johnson said.
She led a team that had three juniors and six sophomores, all of them playing varsity for the first time. The Warriors finished 2-21.
“It was a good learning experience to work with different types of people and discover how the team can improve for me and how they can honestly grow as a group,” Johnson said.
Johnson scored a season-high 14 points against Belleville East in her final home game on Feb. 8.
“It was very emotional at first,” said Johnson, who joined the varsity when she was a sophomore. “I didn’t plan on scoring 14. I just played my heart out. It was my last home game ever in basketball, so I might as well go out with a bang.”
The senior said coach Whitney Sykes-Rogers, who took over the program when Johnson was a freshman, has been helpful throughout her basketball career.
“I had a good amount of time with her because that’s when I started playing JV and varsity,” she said. “She’s a good coach.”
Johnson played all 23 games this year. She said basketball helped her prepare for her senior season with the GCHS girls soccer team this spring.
“It helped me learn leadership and learn how to control my feelings, hold on to my emotions and keep my exposure,” said Johnson, who earned all-Southwestern Conference and all-sectional honors at goalkeeper last year and plans to play soccer at Millikin University next year.
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