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The North Branch boys’ basketball team had a big comeback win and a comeback that fell short last week.

Tuesday, December 13, the Vikings offense took an early holiday break, before returning in time for a 49-41 win over Milaca.

Neither team’s fans had much to cheer for in the first eight minutes of the game. Matt Warren scored the first two points before the first minute had elapsed. The bad news for the home team was that Warren’s basket was the last one the Vikings would score for a long time.

The good news? In that same stretch, Milaca’s Wolves only scored seven.

The Wolves slowly expanded their 7-2 lead over the next seven minutes. With less than four minutes remaining in the opening half, they enjoyed a 17-6 lead over the Vikings.

John Lindstrom scored with 3:13 remaining. Jake Chambers provided all the scoring (four points) the rest of the period and, at halftime, the Vikings were on the wrong end of a 17-12 score.

“I told the team at halftime that the first half was one of the most awful halves of offensive basketball I have seen in my 32 years of coaching,” said North Branch head coach Bill Baumann.

His team had not moved the ball well. They were settling for low percentage shots instead of getting the ball inside. “We were content to launch three pointer after three pointer,” Baumann continued. “The good news was that we were playing good defense. As poorly as we played, we were only down by five.”

After the intermission, the Vikings picked up the Wolves all over the court. Frequent doubleteams and constant pressure disrupted the Milaca offense. The Vikings had tied the score at 21 in a little more than three minutes of the second half. Fifteen seconds later, North Branch took the lead on a Warren drive.

They gradually expanded the lead. With 6:27 remaining, a Chambers three gave the Vikings a 40-32 advantage. They maintained a seven to 10 point margin for the rest of the contest. What had started as an ugly game, turned into a relatively comfortable win for the Vikings.

“We decided to turn the defense up a little more by extending to full court and becoming even more active and, maybe, this would get us more active on offense,” Baumann continued. “It worked!

“We did a much better job rebounding in this game. Even though the stats show we got outrebounded, in reality, we did an exceptional job. They had a lot of defensive rebounds because we shot so poorly,” Baumann explained.

The Vikings shot only 28 percent in the first half. They improved to 54 percent in the second.

“We made some great strides in the second half as we became more active and got great looks at the basket. We actually took more three’s the second half. But, they were good three’s because the passes came from inside out,” Baumann concluded.

Warren led the Vikings with nine rebounds. Chambers had four, Lindstrom three and Justin Novak picked off two boards. Novak led the team with two steals and three assists. Nick Perrin also had three assists and Warren provided two.

Scoring Summary vs. Milaca

Travis Peterson................. 3

Justin Novak..................... 1

Matt Warren..................... 15

Nick Perrin....................... 4

John Lindstrom................ 7

Jake Chambers................. 19

Forest Lake 51, North Branch 48

For the second game in a row, the Vikings got off to a slow start. Playing at home, Forest Lake scored first and gradually built its lead Friday, December 16. With 5:40 remaining in the first half, Forest Lake had increased its advantage to 16 points (25-9).

The lead never got any bigger. By halftime, the Vikings had closed the gap to 10 at 33-23. Five points by Jeff Olson and Nick Perrin and important assists from Travis Peterson provided the spark on the offensive end of the floor.

“We came out and really played hard in the second half,” said Viking coach Baumann.

With 11:30 left, the Vikings had cut the margin to two (36-34) and things were looking good to North Branch fans. At that point, the Vikings offense fell silent for eight minutes. By that time, the Rangers had built the lead to 13 (47-34).

The Vikings fought back, again. Justin Novak assisted on consecutive three’s by David Bennett, Matt Warren and Perrin. The lead was six (49-43) with 1:09 on clock. At the 0:24 mark, a Perrin basket and free throw and a three by Bennett left the Vikings within one possession at 51-48.

A final attempt to tie was unsuccessful and the Rangers escaped with the win.

“We did a good job on the boards again, as we were really outsized. They have two 6’6” players and one who’s 6’5” and their guards are about as big as anybody we have,” Baumann commented.

“We feel our basketball I.Q. is starting to go up. If we can continue to improve our I.Q., we’re going to be alright,” Baumann said.

Novak led the Vikings with five assists and Peterson had three. Nick Perrin collected six rebounds, Warren had five, Peterson four and Lindstrom, Chambers and Bennett had three each.

Scoring vs. Forest Lake

Jeff Olson........................ 7

Matt Warren..................... 11

Nick Perrin....................... 13

John Lindstrom................ 1

Jake Chambers................. 6

David Bennett.................. 10

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