By Cynthia Scott

A brief and furious scoring flurry in the closing moments of the first quarter proved decisive as the St. Michael-Albertville Knights downed the North Branch Vikings 59-51 in Rum River conference action Jan. 7.

Cold shooting by the Knights combined with a stingy Vikings defense held STMA scoreless until 3:21 remained in the first quarter, when a free throw made it 6 -1. But a North Branch turnover and three quick STMA 3-pointers, including a half court shot at the buzzer by Riley Kessler, put the Knights up 12-8 at the end of the quarter.
The Vikings were down by 10 at halftime and fell back by 15 at the end of the third frame. An impressive fourth quarter rally cut the margin to 6 with 3:30 remaining in the game, but STMAís strong field goal shooting sealed the victory.

ìWe are going to have to find some consistency,î said Coach Bill Baumann. "We need to carry over the good things we do from game to game. Right now we start over every game and we donít know which team is going to show up. If we keep our defense consistent with our principles and we work together on offense we can be effective. We have to stay inside the box and not try to do more than we are capable of doing so we can get some consistency.î

Baumannís comment about not knowing which team is going to show up referred to the Vikingsí handy 60-40 win over Pine City on Jan. 4. In that game, the defense clamped down on the Dragons early on and never let go. Baumann called it the best game the Vikings have played since their early-season victory over Forest Lake.

Up next: Jan. 14 v. Big Lake, 7:30 p.m.

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