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By Patrick Tepoorten
The North Branch boysí basketball team lost two games last week, one at home and one on the road.
Last Tuesday, the Vikings had the Fridley Tigers in town but were unable to benefit from the ì12th manî in the stands. North Branch did jump out to a 5-2 lead early in the game and would lead at various times in the first half, but never did their lead exceed three points. The Tigers managed to reverse that trend by halftime, and led the Vikings 23-20 to start the second half.
Again the Vikings would lead in the early going, helped along by two field goals and a three-point bucket from Jake Chambers. By the 10 minute mark though, Fridley was again in control and would not trail for the rest of the game. A valiant effort by the Vikings would reduce the Tigers ten-point lead to three in the last three minutes, but came up just short of stealing the victory.
The final score was Tigers 49, Vikings 45.
Chambers was a one-man wrecking crew for the Vikings, scoring 20 points in the game, including a two for four performance from three-point land. He also notched four rebounds. Matt Warren was the second leading scorer for North Branch with nine points. He tallied seven rebounds and three steals as well.
A bright spot for the Vikings was free throws. Justin Novak shot 100 percent from the charity stripe and the team finished at 85.7 percent from the line. Head coach Bill Baumann thought the team had an average night.
ìWe didnít play poorly but we didnít play well either. We made too many unforced mistakes, especially at critical times.î
On Friday, the Vikings traveled to Robbinsdale Cooper in hopes of making up for the tough home loss, but was instead stymied by the conference leading Hawks, who scored first and held on.
The Vikings were down by 13 points at one point in the half, but were able to reduce that lead to six points by the half. ìThreesî from Warren and Chambers were instrumental in closing the gap.
The Vikings came out strong in the second half, reducing the lead further, to three points, in the opening minutes. Warren and Chambers continued to score on three-point shots and at the 9:41 mark, the Vikings led the Hawks briefly, 44-41. However, just over a minute later, the Hawks reclaimed the lead and held it for the duration of the contest, beating the Vikings 68-61.
Both Warren and Chambers would finish upwards of 20 points on the night, scoring 21 and 25 points respectively. Along the way, Warren shot 4-5 from three point land.
ìCooper is very athletic and talented. They really hurt us inside in the first half but we made some halftime adjustments and took away their post-up game,î said Baumann after the game. Despite the loss, Baumann was happy with the teamís play.
ìWe came out the second half and answered everything Cooper threw at us. They tried a variety of defenses, trying to trap, press pressure but the kids held their composure to rally back,î said Baumann, who added that a ìwith a break or two down the stretchî the Vikings may have pulled off the win. He is hopeful that the squad can take things learned this week and apply them to Duluth Denfeld, Irondale and Princeton in the next week. Doing so will be difficult though, as all three games will be on the road.
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