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Milaca 46

North Branch 34

Their first half was good, their second half was not.

Last Tuesday versus Milaca, despite leading by as much as seven in the first half, the Vikings managed just 12 points in the entire second half, giving the Wolves more than enough to work with. Milaca won the game 46-34.

Sixteen of those 34 points came in the first eight minutes of the game. After scoring the first points of the game, Milaca broke the string with a basket before the Vikings answered with more, including a 9-2 run to close out the first quarter.

The Wolves answered back in the second however, trimming the Viking lead to two midway through the quarter. After Greg Moriarty pushed the North Branch lead back to five with a three-pointer, Milaca tied the game 20-20 with under 30 seconds to play. Nick Perrin closed out the scoring in the first half with a basket as time expired, putting North Branch in front 22-20. Still, after scoring at will in the first, the Vikings went cold in the second quarter, hitting just two of six shots. It was a sign of things to come.

At the start of the third quarter, the Viking lead lasted 40 seconds. Milaca tied the game with a quick basket, scoring the first points of the second half. The Wolves then went on to score 12 of the next 13 points, including a stretch where Milaca hit back-to-back-to-back three-pointers. It was the final blow on a 14-1 run that put the Wolves in front by 11. Perrin and Justin Novak eventually broke the string of points, each hitting baskets late in the quarter. Still, the damage was done. On the heels of a 16-point quarter, Milaca’s lead was 36-28 through three.

“We’ve really been struggling offensively the last five games and the Milaca game was no exception,” said Bill Baumann, North Branch head boys basketball coach. “We haven’t been moving with any authority on offense and we haven’t been shooting with any confidence.”

The Vikings never were able to muster enough offense to close the gap. Instead, Milaca built their lead to 14 at one point before the Wolves settled on a 12-point win. As in the third quarter, North Branch scored just six points in the quarter on 2 of 11 shooting (18 percent). Four of those points came from Al Moore inside.

Moore finished the game with four points. Matt Warren led the team with seven. Nick Perrin scored six.

“We’ve been playing good defense and to only allow 46 points, we should have a chance to win,” remarked Baumann. “All we needed to do was hit a couple of baskets and I think we would alright.”

Milaca 46

North Branch 34

1 2 3 4 F

North Branch 16 6 6 6 34

Milaca 9 11 16 10 46

Scoring-

Warren 7, Perrin 6, Moriarty 5, Novak 5, Beaver 4, Moore 4, Chambers 2, Peterson 1.

North Branch 48

Pine City 44

Through three quarters, it looked like the Vikings were going to shoot themselves out of a win again versus Pine City last Friday. But then all of a sudden, the shots began to fall. One after another, the Vikings began to score at will, striking for 23 points in the fourth quarter to the Dragons 11. Quickly, the deficit began to disappear, from 10 to six, then two. Travis Peterson’s basket with 5:50 left in the game tied the score 36-36. Then the North Branch lead began to grow. From two, to five, and then back to four, the Vikings made every basket count, hitting 9 of 10 shots in the fourth en route to a 48-44 win. Now that’s more like it.

“Give the kids credit, they all played hard. I think our depth was a big advantage in the fourth quarter. We seemed pretty fresh and we still had the extra bounce in our step,” replied Baumann. “Al Moore’s field goal at the end of the third quarter brought us within eight and the kids were really confident going into the fourth quarter. We started out the quarter with key steals by Matt Warren, Jake Chambers, and two by Tony Beaver which led to some easy baskets and gave us the spark we needed offensively. We started to play with more confidence on the offensive end and attack the basket.”

The Vikings didn’t start the game with confidence. North Branch didn’t score their first points until the 2:45 mark of the first quarter. Fortunately, their defense was strong enough to keep the Dragons close, allowing just 10 points in the first, leading a 10-6 deficit after one.

“We started out by not scoring the first five minutes of the game. We continued in our funk of the last couple of weeks. We worked really hard in practice on offense the last couple of days and we were just trying too hard to execute,” commented Baumann. “Fortunately, we were playing good defense again and making Pine City work for everything they got. It was fortunate we were playing good defense because we never lost touch with them.”

Another run in the second quarter by the Dragons pushed their lead to eight points late before Moore and Warren closed out the first half on a good note for North Branch, combining for the final five points of the quarter, trimming the Pine City lead to 24-19.

Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Things got worse for the Vikings on offense out of the locker room. North Branch had a slow third quarter, scoring just six points, helping Pine City build a 33-25 lead heading into the fourth.

Al Moore scored the final basket of the quarter for the Vikings, which sparked the turnaround. Everyone else took it from there. Seven different players scored for North Branch in the fourth, led by six each from Warren and Jeff Olson. Moriarty put the finishing touches on the Vikings win with two free throws late en route to a 48-44 win.

Warren led the pack with 16 points while Chambers finished with nine and Moore added eight. Warren also led the team on the boards with four rebounds.

The win improved the Vikings overall record to 7-13 and pushed their conference mark to 6-7.

North Branch 48

Pine City 44

1 2 3 4 F

Pine City 10 14 9 11 44

North Branch 6 13 6 23 48

Scoring-

Warren 16, Chambers 9, Moore 8, Olson 6, Beaver 3, Peterson 2, Moriarty 2, Perrin 2.

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