Cook County News Herald

Tough start for Viking boys at Nashwauk-Keewatin




With four new starters the Cook County Viking boys’ basketball team is definitely lacking experience and it showed during its first game of the season when they traveled to Nashwauk-Keewatin on Friday, November 21 and lost their opening game of the season 78-39.

Nashwauk has a strong starting five, said Head Coach Pat Eliasen, and a deep bench.

The Vikings fell behind 9-0. Nashwauk won the tip, scored then stole the ball and led 4-0 before the game barely started.

“Nashwauk applied full court pressure from the beginning and we didn’t handle it well,” said Coach Eliasen.

“We fell behind by a significant margin right away and could never get into our rhythm. Nashwauk dictated the flow of the game for its entirety.”

The Vikings trailed 46-17 at halftime but played better the second half, trailing 32-22 over the last period.

One thing that hurt was the 3-point shooting of Nashwauk. The Spartans hit 10 3-point shots while the Vikings failed to make one in the game.

Jamie Wick paced Cook County with 11 points. Andy Farley had 10, Jared Spry seven, and Sam O’ Phelan and Lucas Phillips both had five.

Kaleb Perky who had 19 points and Alex Otterbein who finished with 15 points led Nashwauk.

The Vikings finished with 8 fouls to Naswauk’s 19. Cook County was 13-27 at the free throw line while the Spartans were 6 of 10.

After the game Eliasen said, “Offensively we need more time on the floor to gain confidence and become stronger with the ball. We missed far too many layups and put backs that would have kept us at a competitive level during the game.

“Nashwauk is a good team and I expect them to get deep into the playoffs. It’s obvious by watching them play that they put in a significant amount of work in the off-season. The teams that come into their first game looking like they are in mid-season form while the teams that don’t are wondering what the outcome will be.

“Jamie Wick had a very good game and he was a workhorse the entire time. Rory Bakke was our main ball handler and he had a heavy load trying to bring the ball up against their pressure. We’re going to get better and I expect a very positive week of practice. We’ll play Silver Bay on December 3,” said Eliasen.



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