Always drawing a crowd, especially when he has the basketball, Sam O’Phelan fought off two Nighthawk defenders to score two points in a game that the Vikings won.
The Vikings played one home game and two games on the road in the span of six days last week, coming away with two wins and one loss.
It wasn’t always pretty, but the one-win Cook County Viking boys’ basketball team pulled away to defeat the one-win Northeast Range Nighthawks on Thursday, January 19.
Viking head coach Mitch Dorr started three sophomores, Trusen Gordon, Will Ramberg, Dyami Blackwell, ninth grader Jordan Porter and the team’s lone senior, Sam O’Phelan against the Nighthawks.
Both teams had trouble scoring, so when the Vikings took a 20-12 lead late in the first half, it looked like a good omen. However, the Nighthawks scored 7 points in quick fashion, and the Vikings’ lead was 20-19, at halftime.
Dyami Blackwell scored a quick bucket to start the second half, but the Nighthawks also scored. O’Phelan put back a rebound for 2 points, but the Nighthawks 6’3” center answered with a basket of his own. The Vikings turned the ball over on the next series, and the Nighthawks took their first lead of the game 28-27, but O’Phelan answered with another basket to put the Vikings in the lead again, and this time the Vikings would hold it. With the score 34-31, Blackwell hit a 3-point shot followed by a 3-point bucket from Will Ramberg which stretched the Vikings’ lead to 40-31. The Nighthawks clawed their way to within 4 points, 44-40, but the Vikings pulled away with Trusen Gordon sealing the win from the charity stripe with four makes on free throws, and the Vikings earned their second win of the season 50-43.
“We started out slow, but Sam really played big for us inside, and Dyami is starting to find his rhythm on offense,” said head coach Mitch Dorr. “We did a better job of taking care of the ball in the second half and that ultimately led to the win. We out rebounded Northeast Range 35-16.”
O’Phelan ended the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds while Blackwell finished with 13 points and nine boards. Will Ramberg was the only other Viking with double figures, scoring 10 points.
Vikings lose to McGregor
Sam O’Phelan led the Vikings with 14 points and eight rebounds in a hard fought game against the McGregor Mercs on Saturday, January 21 in a game played at McGregor.
“Though we lost, we probably played our best basketball of the season in McGregor against a very good Merc team,” Coach Dorr said. “We still need to take care of the ball better, but our defensive intensity was much better. We turned the ball over 19 times and gave up 13 offensive boards, and we were still in the game in the end. If we just clean it up a bit, we should be okay.”
The Vikings fell 55-43 in the game.
Once again Sam O’Phelan led the team with 14 points and eight rebounds. Trusen Gordon finished with 11 points and had five steals; Will Ramberg had 9 points and Dyami Blackwell 7 points.
“I really thought it was Trusen’s best game of the season as we played very well on both ends of the floor,” said Coach Dorr. “Dyami gave us great energy this game, and we will need that from him on a consistent basis as we get into the next stretch of games.”
Vikings lose to Mesabi East
On Tuesday, January 24 the 2-8 Vikings boarded the bus and traveled to Aurora to play the 4-8 Mesabi East Giants in what turned out to be a seesaw affair.
“We got in a hole early as we couldn’t handle their pressure defense,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr.
“We cut the lead to only seven at halftime, 26-33.
“Then we got in another hole and stormed back to 48-48 with 5:15 left in the game. Mesabi East then finished the game with a 22-5 run to win, 70-53.
“We just couldn’t handle their full court pressure….” said the coach.
The Vikings received balanced scoring with Sam O’Phelan putting in 17 points, Will Ramberg 12, Jordan Porter 10, and Dyami Blackwell netted 9.
“Jordan Porter is really playing well for us,” Coach Dorr said. “He is playing fearless basketball. If we can get everyone to start attacking the basket like he is, we will continue to move in the right direction.”
The Vikings play Cromwell on Friday, January 27, at 4:45 p.m. and play again at home on February 3 against Barnum at 6:30 p.m.
Leave a Reply