Above: Junior guard Colin Everson snaps a bounce pass around the defender’s hand. Right: junior guard Kale Boomer turns the corner and dribbles by his defender as he heads for a layup. The boy’s team is now 5-1, with their only loss coming to 3A Esko. The boys play at home on Friday the 13th against Silver Bay. The game starts at 6:30 p.m.
Friday, January 6 was a good day for Viking boys’ and girls’ basketball as each team won in Cromwell.
And if the girls played an edge-of-your-seat, hold-yourbreath and-pray game the night before, well, the boys aimed to keep their side of the bargain the next night in Cromwell. The Vikings came out and dominated early, going up by 9 points and looking strong. But Cromwell came right back and hit back-to-back three pointers to close the gap.
At this point, the Vikings offense practically went into hibernation, and were about as effective as Congress.
But just because their shots weren’t falling, the Vikings didn’t let up on defense and caused Cromwell a dirth and mirth of turnovers and missed shots.
Still, despite throwing up enough bricks to build a small house, the Vikings took a 29-22 lead into halftime.
Second half action saw each team making runs at each other. The lead seesawed with the Vikings up early by 7 and down 3 points late in the game.
“The game was close throughout,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr.
Great team defense kept the Vikings in the game and caused Cromwell some big turnovers. The first unit is led by seniors David Bergstrom, Mike Sjogren, Dylan Quaife, and juniors Kale Boomer and Colin Everson. Everyone makes defense and rebounding a top priority. Despite a lack of size, the whole team crashes the board and regularly wins the battle of boards. It might often be seen as more gritty than pretty, but it’s effective and wins games when the basket and ball seem to go together like oil and water, which is what the Viking players experienced against Cromwell.
While the ball wasn’t falling, the Vikings were able to generate just enough points to stay in the contest with the last four points coming off of free throws made by senior forward Quaife, who was fouled twice as the clock wound down. Ignoring the pressure, Quaife nailed all four of his free throws and sealed the 48-45 win for the Vikings.
“We came back and won when Dylan Quaife hit four free throws in a row to ice the game,” said Dorr.
Although the game was close throughout, it shouldn’t have been.
“We missed numerous lay-ups and easy shots,” Dorr said, adding, “We shot 15 of 60 from the field and 17 of 25 from the (free throw) line. They (Cromwell) attempted 41 shots, 7 free throws and turned it over 26 times and we still only won by three points.
“We really were rusty after a nearly three-week break over the holidays,” Dorr said, adding, “We survived though and our defense carried us once again.”
Senior forward Dylan Quaife led the team in scoring with 17 points. David Bergstrom followed him with 15, Kale Boomer netted 8, Colin Everson had 5 and Mike Sjogren finished with 3 points.
The Vikings’ record is now 5-1. This week the boys played Silver Bay on Friday night at home, followed by two on the road against Cromwell and Moose Lake-Willow River. The boys’ next home game is against Ely on Saturday, January 21 at 3 p.m.
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