Vikings pillage Wrangell

The Vikings had an outstanding weekend of boys basketball in Wrangell.

Friday’s varsity game started with a first half where neither team really controlled the tempo of the game.

Petersburg was ahead 11-8 at the end of the first period. The second quarter was dead even, so Petersburg kept a one possession lead of 21-18 going into the half.

“We came out a little flat in the third and Wrangell outscored us 17-10,” said Vikings Head Coach Rick Brock.

Wrangell’s leader Clayton Stokes scored 11 points in the quarter, driving the Wolves into a 35-31 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“With just a couple of minutes left in the game we scored a few times and fouled them, and they missed a few free throws for us,” said Brock.

With about 12 seconds left, Wrangell was at the free throw line and ahead by one point. They missed the free throw and there was a scramble for the ball underneath the basket, according to Brock.

“The ball popped out toward the sideline and Dan Loucks was able to corral the ball. He came out of the pile with it and took off down the court full speed,” said Brock.

“Dan is one of our post players, so he’s not typically handling the ball on a fast break, but he outraced everybody to the other end and scored the go ahead with the basket with four seconds left, putting us up.”

Wrangell called a timeout then ran a play and got a look at the basket, but missed.

The Vikings won the hard fought game by one point, 47-46

“Neither team had more than a two possession lead the whole game,” said Brock. “The ball bounced our way at the end of the game and Dan made a fantastic play.”

On Saturday night the Vikings started the game in foul trouble.

“We had two guys on the bench within the first few minutes of the ballgame and had four out of six of our top players in foul trouble in the first half,” said Brock.

As a result, Anthony Curtiss and Kaz Aoki came off the bench and contributed hugely to the game.

“Neither one has played a lot of varsity this year. Anthony was solid inside and Kaz made a few key assists right before halftime,” said Brock.

Wrangell had the lead most of the second quarter, but the Vikings pulled it up and went into half time ahead by one.

The Vikings had a strong second half.

“In the third quarter, our defense improved. We held them to four points in the quarter, and at the same time our offense did a great job, especially out of our high post area. We got hot and made five threes in the quarter, three of them by Tristan Welton,” said Brock.

The Vikings took a one point lead and extended it to a 14 point advantage, and that offensive flow continued into the fourth quarter leading to a 70-52 Viking win.

Taylor Pullar lead the team with 27 points, 11 of those in the fourth quarter.

“We had good balanced scoring across the team, contributions from a lot of people,” said Brock.

“Michael Brock did a great job of getting us into our offense…and defensively he did a good job of containing one of Wrangell’s better players.”

“I’m happy with the overall team effort, going after loose balls, getting offensive rebounds, making that extra pass for the open player. A great weekend,” said Brock.

“It was a really big weekend for us too, because Hugh Fleming suffered a season ending injury in Sitka last week, so we went over there down a starter. It was a big blow to lose one of our seniors, one of our leaders. Going over there we knew that everyone had to step up and do a little bit more for the team,” said Brock. “Everyone had to pick up for the loss of Hugh and we were able to do that.”

The JV won both of their games too. 50-30 on Friday and 50-32 on Saturday, with Jared Volk, Kayin McCay, Kaz Aoki, Billy Ware and Clayton Franklin leading the scoring.

This weekend the Vikings travel to Craig.