Far left: Sam O’Phelan rose up high to score two of his 15 points against the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans in the Vikings’ home opener played last Friday night. Above: Lucas Phillips (21) tips off the basketball season against Spartan guard Kaleb Pelkey. Inset: Jerod Spry starts a drive toward the hoop. Spry finished with 9 points in the game.
Viking fans attending the boys’ basketball home opener against Nashwauk-Keewatin on Friday, November 20 saw a young Viking team that is a work in progress, but after a ragged first half of play, some good work was seen in the second half.
In an effort to find the right player combinations, Head Coach Mitch Dorr used his whole bench in the home opener against a veteran Spartan squad who returned nearly everyone from a 15-11 record in the 2014-2015 season.
Meanwhile, the Vikings return starting senior guard Rory Bakke and junior forward Sam O’Phelan and sometime-starters seniors Lucas Phillips and Jerod Spry off a two-win season last year. Junior guard Marcus Logan also saw quite a bit of playing time, as did quite a few younger players, but because of youth it was hard for then- Head Coach Pat Eliasen to set a week-to-week starting lineup. Eliasen had to leave his coaching job at season’s end because he was too busy to coach as newly elected Cook County Sheriff.
Finding enough offense was a problem last year, and over the first half of this game that was still evident as the Vikings trailed 16-3 after five minutes of play and went into halftime down 35-13.
Senior forward Lucas Phillips helped the Vikings get going early in the second half by nailing back-to-back 3-point shots, and while the Vikings slowed the Spartans down offensively, Nashwauk had too much of a lead and too much skill to let the Vikings back into the contest.
Following Phillips’ nice shooting, Sam O’Phelan scored eight out of 10 Vikings’ points to get the Vikings to within 18 points, 49-31. That would be as close as the Vikes would get, but the team showed a lot of hustle and much better court play in the second half.
Nashwauk was led by the 3-point shooting of Zach Branter and his fellow guard Kaleb Pelkey who repeatedly broke through the Vikings’ defense for layups. The Spartans also had a smooth shooting center, Marek Cobb, who the Vikings had trouble matching up against.
Sam O’Phelan led the Vikings with 15 points, 10 rebounds. Jerod Spry 9, Lucas Phillips 8, Dyami Blackwell 5, Rory Bake 3, Mike Burton 2, and Marcus Logan 2 points.
While the Vikings lost the game, they outscored Nashwauk 30-28 in the second half, falling 63-43 to the Spartans.
“We have a lot to work on and the kids are learning a new system, but overall we had good effort,” said head coach Mitch Dorr. “I was really pleased with Dyami Blackwell’s performance and overall effort. He played tremendous. I also thought Sam O’Phelan and Jerod Spry played with tremendous effort throughout the game.”
Up next is a game against North Shore rival Silver Bay on December 2 in Silver Bay. The Vikings play at home again on Tuesday, December 8 against Floodwood. Both the girls and boys are scheduled to play at 4:45 p.m. It isn’t specified in the schedule which gym the games will be in, but both teams will be great to follow.
Leave a Reply