By Steve Morris

After winning four of their last five games, the North Branch boys basketball team was starting to come together; so they thought.

Last week, the boys fell against two North Suburban Conference teams. On Feb. 13, it was private school Totino-Grace and on Feb. 15 it was Irondale.

Totino-Grace

Sophomore guard Ryan Norman had his most potent offensive night of the year, pouring in 15 points in a 63-53 loss.

North Branch was hurting without a true big man presence in the paint. The Vikings were outrebounded 18-36 for the game, which carried over into 13 second chance points for the Eagles.

"We are just too inconsistent. We have periods where we play the way I think we are capable of playing and then we have spurts where we don't score for seven to 10 minutes. Without our defense we would be in big trouble," head coach Bill Baumann said.

Irondale

Bryce Hunter and Nick Perrin combined for 24 points but it still wasn't enough to wiggle out of the strong grip the Irondale Knights had on them as the Vikes lost 56-48.

The Vikings were red hot from the free throw line, sinking 15 of 16 shots.

Baumann said his team has been inconsistent a lot this season. However, he remains confident in his teams defensive ability.

"We need to keep playing defense and then explode on offense. We have the potential to be a very dangerous team winding down the season," Baumann said.

North Branch 22 31 53
Totino-Grace 31 32 63

Ryan Norman 15, Jake Kovarik 2, Justin Novak 7, Nick Perrin 11, John Lindstrom 5, Jake Chambers 12, Bryce Hunter

North Branch 31 25 56
Irondale 20 28 48

Ryan Norman 5, Justin Novak 6, Nick Perrin 12, Jake Chambers 11, Bryce Hunter 12, Eric Sampson