Above: Although it would appear that Owen Anderson was being fouled on this play, no whistles blew as he tried to get by a couple of Ely defenders. Left: Seth Warren showed nice form on this jump shot, but as the Vikings found all night long, any time they tried to shoot an Ely defender was in their face.
Turnovers killed any chance the Viking boys’ team had of beating the Cromwell Cardinals in a game played in Cromwell on Friday, January 17.
The Vikings turned the ball over almost 30 times, said Head Coach Pat Eliasen, losing by 9 points to a team that they can certainly beat if they take care of the ball.
“We were also 4 of 16 from the free throw line. Combine those two statistics, turnovers and missed free throws, and you can see why we lost,” said Coach Eliasen.
Eliasen said, “Brandon Curtis had a real good game for us. He scored 16 points and had 9 rebounds; he just had a good all around game.”
Lars Scannell also had a good game, scoring 15 points and pulling down 5 boards. Jamie Wick scored 7 points and had 6 rebounds, Richie Furlong netted 4 points and had 5 boards and Jonny Jacobsen ended his night with 3 points and led the team in rebounds with 10.
“We had flashes of brilliance in the game. The start of the second half Jonny and Brandon ran the pick and roll to perfection four or five times in a row. But then we got away from it. Cromwell also out hustled us. I was disappointed in that. Cromwell also hit a ton of 3-point shots. Still, it was our game to win, and we didn’t get it done,” Eliasen said.
The final score was 54-45.
11-1 Ely beats Vikings
The Ely Timberwolves have been on fire this season, posting an 11-1 record, so the Vikings knew they would have their hands full when they hosted the T-wolves on Saturday, January 18 for a lightly attended day game.
While Ely isn’t big, they play tremendous full-court defense, trapping ball handlers and forcing turnovers, and this high-octane squad quickly converts takeaways into points.
The press was too much for the Vikings, and for most of the night Ely led by 20 to 30 points.
Still, for the first 10 minutes of play the Vikings took care of the ball and ran their offense. A bad omen for the Vikings was an injury to starting guard Lars Scannell. Scannell injured his quad, but he was fine the next day, said Eliasen. Scannell went out of the game almost as fast as it started, and although he returned later, it was clear that his leg was hurting, and he couldn’t use his explosiveness to get to the basket or make moves to create his own shot.
When the Vikings got the ball up the court and ran their new 2-1-2 pick and roll offense, they showed flashes of what the future should look like, making good passes that set up lay-ups or short shots.
With a team filled with new players, and a lot of young players, it was too much to expect that the Vikings would be able to beat or play close to this Ely squad. Still, they held the Timberwolves to 63 points, about 20 under their average, for a final score of 63-30.
“Defensively we played a good game against a high-caliber club. I told the kids I was proud of the way they hustled on the court. But once again we didn’t take care of the ball. We had 27 turnovers and when you only have 55 to 60 possessions in a game, you can’t turn over half of those and expect to do very well,” said Eliasen.
Richie Furlong ended with 8 points and 4 rebounds; Lars Scannell 6 points and 4 boards; Jamie Wick 5 points and 5 rebounds; Brandon Curtis 4 points and 11 rebounds; and Jonny Jacobsen had 2 points and 11 rebounds.
Agates chill Vikings
Tuesday, January 21 was cold. Cold enough so that three school buses wouldn’t start in the morning. Cold enough so that the girls’ basketball team didn’t travel to play Northeast Range. Cold enough so that by the time the boys’ team got to Two Harbors they still weren’t warm—at least when it came to shooting baskets.
Two Harbors led 28-13 at the half and went on to score 30 more points in the second half. Meanwhile, the Vikings only did a little bit better with 18 second half points, finishing with a final score of 58-31.
Jonny Jacobsen led the Vikings with 13 points; Lars Scannell ended with 9; Richie Furlong 4; Brandon Curtis 3; and Andy Farley had 2 points.
The boys play Silver Bay on Friday, January 24 at home. The game starts at 4:45 p.m. and the girls’ game against the Mariners will follow at 6:30 p.m.
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