Jamie “Jammer” Wick and Rory Bakke (right) were picked to be the Viking boys’ basketball team cocaptains for the 2014-2015 season.
The final score doesn’t always tell the tale of the game, noted boys’ basketball Head Coach Pat Eliasen.
“With five minutes left the game was close,” said Eliasen of the Vikings’ road game played December 9 at Carlton.
At halftime the score was knotted 19-19, but the Bulldogs’ defense finally shut down the young Vikings’ offense as the clock wound down. The final score was 51-35.
“The pressure they applied finally wore us down and caused us turnovers late in the game. We tried to pressure them back in an attempt to close the gap but it backfired on us,” Eliasen said.
With a thin, young bench, Eliasen has few options to go to when his starters get tired. That wasn’t the case for Carlton. “Carlton looked fresh throughout the entire game and subbed 4-5 guys each time to keep fresh legs on the floor.
“Our zone defense kept them in check but offensively we need to find opportunities to score and we need shots to fall. We missed a significant amount of shots and it’s hard to win a game no matter how good you play defense if the offensive side is lacking,” Coach Eliasen said.
“As usual Andy Farley and Jamie Wick led the team in scoring and rebounding. They both work amazingly hard and keep us in the games,” said Eliasen.
Wick is the Vikings’ lone returning starter from last year’s squad, so there will be some growing pains as the kids learn Coach Eliasen’s offense and defensive schemes and learn to play together.
Andy Farley led the Vikings with 16 points and Wick chipped in 11. Lucas Phillips had 4 points with Sam O’Phelan and Rory Bakke each netting 2 points to end the Vikings, scoring.
The Vikings played a home game on Thursday, December 11 against Two Harbors and then play two more road games before coming home in early January.
Leave a Reply