DANVILLE — Following a 3-13 start to the season the Danville Lady Vikings turned their year around by winning six of their next seven games.

The Vikings mounted a strong fourth quarter comeback and showed the effort that has highlighted the entire season, but it wasn’t enough to continue the hot streak as a slow start proved to be too much to overcome Thursday night in a 47-36 loss to the Normal West Lady Wildcats.

The Vikings were led by a game high 16 points from J’Lynn Ayers with Alexus Jimson-Miller adding 10 points and Breanna Keys eight.

The Wildcats, who are one of the top teams in the Big 12 conference, jumped out to a 20-5 lead and played 11 players in the first quarter.

“We spent the whole game trying to dig out of that hole and actually won the game from that point forward,” said Vikings coach Ashley Clanton. “We haven’t had anyone jump out on us since early in the year and I think it really knocked us back for awhile. This game was really in a lot of ways like a whole season in one game with some really good and bad moments. The kids worked hard as they always do, worked together, and still made a game of it.”

Jimson-Miller had the only field goal for the Vikings in the first quarter as the Wildcats ended the period with a 20-8 lead and took a 29-15 lead into halftime. The Vikings ended the first half with three field goals.

“Free throws kept us in the game in the first half,” Clanton said. “We made an effort to get to the basket. We sometimes have shied away from contact, but we stayed directed towards the basket tonight and drew some fouls.”

The Wildcats lead would reach a high of 19 points late in the third quarter and Normal West ended the period with a 37-22 lead. Ayers sat out most of the first half with foul trouble but keyed an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter to cut the Normal West lead to 37-30.

“We were down seven a couple of times with the ball and things just didn’t bounce our way in the fourth quarter,” Clanton said. “Normal West is an up the floor, get after it kinda team and they can put 11 players out there that are basically interchangeable and that’s not something we have seen much.

“Rebounding was one of the main keys to the game. We didn’t have our top rebounder in J’Lynn on the court for basically the first half, and Normal West did do a nice job rebounding.”

Clanton was pleased with what she saw defensively after the first quarter.

“We started in straight man, but we really haven’t had a team come at us the way they did offensively,” she said. “It took some getting used to. We switched back and forth from man to zone and did a much better job over the last three quarters.”

The Vikings are now 9-15 overall and 6-6 in the Big 12.

“When we were losing all those games at the start of the season, we didn’t sit around crying about it,” Clanton said. “We kept working at getting better and that’s what we have done and will do after this game. We have two games to go and we will be fine. It was better that something like this game happened now and not at the regional. We will keep working and we will have the opportunity to get some wins to close out the season and at the regional.”

Kristi Burghart led the Vikings with 12 points but it wasn’t enough as Normal West won the junior varsity game 43-31.

The Vikings return to action at home Monday against Mahomet-Seymour and close out the season Thursday at Champaign Central.