Justin Goldstein (above) makes a nice pass around a defender in the Greenway game while Jordan Lack (right) gets ready to drive for the basket. Dylan Quaife (far right) has been a force for the Vikings all year long underneath the basket. Here he goes up to score 2 points against Cromwell.
Too much. The Vikings had too much offense, too much defense, too much rebounding and too much hustle to allow the Greenway Titans to make any kind of a game of it last Thursday night, January 12, in the gym at Cook County High School.
They were also too selfless, passing first and helping each other on defense all night long. It was a formula the Titans couldn’t unravel and led to a 69-23 victory for the Vikings.
Playing at home for the first time in a month proved to be just the right tonic for the boys who, while winning, have struggled at times on the road.
At the half the Vikings were up 34-12 and with 14 minutes left they led 44-12. The only drama left at that point was guessing whether or not the Titans would finish with 20 points.
However, about that time Head Coach Mitch Dorr started subbing in younger players who played well, but gave up a few more points than the varsity players.
With point guard Kale Boomer taking the ball up the court, the Vikings used quick perimeter passes until they found a man open underneath or an open shot from the outside. On this night, they were hitting from all cylinders, a model of efficiency as they ran the Titan defense ragged.
Defensively the Vikings played a hybrid man-to-man/trapping zone, often doubling a ball carrier once he stopped dribbling. They not only didn’t give up any easy shots, they forced a flurry of turnovers and like usual, whenever a shot went up, everyone crashed the boards.
Colin Everson led the Vikings in scoring with 18 points. Dylan Quaife, who finished with 15 points, followed him. Kale Boomer netted 13, David Bergstrom 10, Jonny Jacobsen 6, Mike Sjogren 4, and Justin Goldstein hit for 3 points. Boys beat Silver Bay in tough contest
When these two teams met last year, the Vikings won by 20 at home and lost by 20 points at Silver Bay. With the line-ups much the same this year, it figured to be a good game on January 13, and it was.
Neither team could intimidate the other, but on this night the Vikings played just a little bit better on defense, each team battling hard on the interior. Because both teams played tough inside, quite a few shots went up from behind the 3-point line. In fact, each team hit eight 3-point shots in the game.
The Vikings pulled ahead 29-20 at the half and, despite losing the lead a couple of times in the second half, stayed close enough to close out the Mariners, winning 60-52.
A bright spot underneath for the Vikings was senior forward Dylan Quaife, who led all scorers with 21 points, many of those on put backs and hitting his free throws. In fact, the team went 16-21 from the charity stripe to seal the win. Kale Boomer followed with 13 points, David Bergstrom and Colin Everson each had 12 points and Jonny Jacobsen scored 2 points. Everson and Bergstrom each had three 3-point baskets.
Kyle Blood led Silver Bay with 20 points.
“Dylan had a great game, scoring 21 points,” said Dorr. “David scored 12 points while grabbing nine rebounds and collected 5 steals.
“I also thought Kale had a great game at the point guard position making some key shots when we really needed them.
“Silver Bay is a very nice team with some great scorers. I thought our defensive effort was great,” added Dorr.
Vikings defeat Cromwell Cardinals
One week ago the Vikings traveled to Cromwell and won a tough contest 48-45. The Cardinals and Vikings have similar line-ups in terms of size and age, with a nice mix of seniors and juniors dominating their rosters, so it figured to be close. Round two on January 18 was different however.
The Vikings came out and forced Cromwell into taking bad shots early while working inside and out to get good shots of their own. With the Viking offense and defense clicking on all cylinders, the Cardinals didn’t have much of a chance. The first half saw the Vikings take an early lead, stretching it out to a 32-14 advantage at halftime. And it could have been worse.
But basketball is a game of two halves, and the Vikings almost ended up have-nots. Cromwell ramped up its defense in the second half and the Vikings couldn’t buy a basket.
Slowly but surely the Cardinals came back, mostly riding the hot hand of their senior forward, Jake Ramberg. Midway through the second half, Ramberg, who has a soft touch around the basket, hit 4 straight turn-around jump shots while the Vikings continued to struggle on offense. But those would be the only baskets he would make.
Defense, rebounding and foul shooting saved the day for the Vikings. During the last 5 minutes, the Vikings forced Cromwell into 4 turnovers and Dylan Quaife and David Bergstrom each blocked a shot.
Kale Boomer also saved a sure lay-up when he caught a runaway Cromwell guard at the basket and stripped him of the ball, forcing it off of the Cardinal and giving the ball back to the Vikings.
With time winding down, Cromwell was 8 points down and forced into fouling. With less than two minutes to go, Dylan Quaife was fouled on a dribbledrive to the basket and he made 1 foul shot.
Kale Boomer and David Bergstrom were each fouled in the backcourt as Cromwell tried desperately to get the ball back. Both players made their foul shots and the Vikings had the cushion they needed to hold off a very game Cromwell team 49-36.
“We had a great first half where both our offense and defense were clicking. I thought our first half was the best half of basketball we have played all season,” said Coach Dorr.
But Dorr said the second half wasn’t pretty.
“We did win, which is good, but I was pretty disappointed in our second half of play. We were sloppy and turned the ball over way too much. We did what we needed to win, but we really need to work on closing out games and finishing stronger.”
Dylan Quaife led all scorers with 17 points. Colin Everson followed him with 14, David Bergstrom with 12, Mike Sjogren with 4 and Kale Boomer with 2 points.
The Vikings play Ely at home at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, and then play Carlton at home on Friday, January 27 at 4:45.
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