VIKES COME OUT BLAZING AGAINST BELLMONT!

On a cold snowy night in the Vikes came out in North Arena blazing hitting almost everything they threw up including several 3’s. It was one of those nights that you just knew nothing was going to stop them. The Vikes came out fresh, focused, and on fire.

Both Bellmont (7-6) & Huntington North (4-10) came into the game riding 3 game losing streaks with Huntington North losing 6 out of their last 7 games.

The Vikes cam out red hot from the floor hitting multiple 3’s from Sam Thompson and one from Deven Newcomb building a 20 to 9 lead heading into the 2nd quarter. The Vikes played the quarter on a mission with incredible focus and were able to get good looks from beyond the arc.

If it was the offense that dominated the 1st quarter, it was the defense that dominated the 2nd as the Vikes held Bellmont to just 5 points heading into halftime with a 33 to 14 lead. Huntington shot a blazing 70% from the field in the 1st half and were (5-10) from beyond the arc. The Vikes held Bellmont to 45% shooting in the 1st half only taking 2 3’s missing them both.

The 22nd half of the game was more like I expected to go a lot of trading baskets by both teams but by then it was just too late for Bellmont to make a move as the Vikes strong 1st half proved to be too hard to recover from as your Vikes won 57 to 42 improving to (5-10) as Belmont fell to (7-7).

The big statistic that I knew made the difference was 3pt shooting as the Vikes outscored Belmont 18 to 3 when from points off of 3 pointers. This statistic was without question the statistic of the game. Sam Thompson was the igniter hitting 4 out of 9 beyond the arc with many of those coming in the first 5 to 8 minutes of the game finishing with 14 points for the game.

The Vikes also did a much better job taking care of the basketball finishing with just 8 turnovers compared to Bellmont 11. The Vikings finished shooting a blazing 65.2% from the filed while holding Bellmont to 40% to the field.

I believe the Vikes played with very sharp focus, and played very well defensively putting forth a ton of effort.

I figured heading into this game the Vikes had a shot at getting a win but expected it to be a tight game, Huntington put an end to that real fast coming out red hot early taking the momentum of the game and never giving it back. I do believe if it wasn’t for that the game would have been much closer thus changing the whole tone of the game.

The Vikes play @ Dekalb next Saturday February 1st with tip off set at 7:30pm EST.