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After starting its initial season in the North Suburban Conference with three victories, the North Branch boys basketball team lost its second and third consecutive conference games last week.

North Branch vs. Totino-Grace

Tuesday, January 17 the Vikings lost a 71-70 overtime heartbreaker at Totino-Grace.

North Branch got off to a fast start against the Eagles. Midway through the first half, behind the scoring of Jake Chambers and Nick Perrin, the Vikings had built a ten point lead. They kept the lead for the rest of the half and led 31-22 at the intermission.

“We started out fast but just couldn't put them away,” said North Branch head coach Bill Baumann.

The Vikings took good shots in the first half and went 10 for 17 from the field while limiting the Eagles to 32 percent (8/25). “We played good defense in the first half but we gave up way too many easy baskets in the second half,” Baumann continued.

Totino went on a 14-5 run at the beginning of the second half and tied the game 36-36 at the 13:41 mark. Over the next four minutes the teams exchanged leads and the score was tied four times.

It was tied at 42 with 10:08 remaining when the Vikings tried to pull away. They managed a six point lead twice, but consecutive Eagle three pointers tied the score (50-50) for the sixth time with 7:29 to go.

Totino led most of the rest of regulation, although the Vikings never trailed by more than three. North Branch trailed by that margin when Chambers created the 12th and last tie of the game with a three that knotted the score at 63-63 at the end of regulation.

Overtime was tight the whole way. The lead changed hands six times and the Eagles scored last to take the victory.

“We did a good job of coming back and tying the game to send it into overtime. The game went back and forth in OT and we took the lead with 11 seconds to go. But, we allowed Totino to get an easy shot in the last 5 seconds to win the game.

“I was really disappointed in our second half defense as we made some critical mistakes and allowed Totino to take control of the game,” Baumann added.

Travis Peterson had another good game with five rebounds and two steals. Matt Warren had seven rebounds and four assists and Chambers led the team with three assists.

Scoring Summary

North Branch 31 32 7 70

Totino Grace 22 41 8 71

Travis Peterson .............. 6

Justin Novak .............. 11

Jeff Olson .............. 3

Matt Warren .............. 4

Nick Perrin .............. 18

John Lindstrom .............. 3

Jake Chambers .............. 17

David Bennett .............. 8

Total 70

North Branch vs. St. Louis Park

The St. Louis Park Orioles handed the Vikings their second loss of the week by winning 57-46 Friday, January 20 at North Branch.

The Vikings and SLP played even for the first 11 minutes until the score was tied at 18 with 7:28 remaining in the first half. But, the Orioles outscored North Branch 12-5 and the first half ended with the Vikings on the wrong end of a 30-23 score.

North Branch never mounted a serious challenge in the second half and the Orioles led by 8 to 12 points for most of the period.

“We didn't play with the same energy we had been playing with in our last couple of games.  We played more on our heels and let things we can't control bother us.  We were right in the game until we got into a little foul trouble in the first half.  We jumped out to an early lead and had an opportunity to put them away early, but we got away from what made us successful.

“We were really stagnant on offense and just didn't finish shots off.  It reminded me a lot of the Columbia Heights game in the way we played. 

“Matt Warren was the only one that could get anything going on offense but he just couldn't carry us.

“We have to get back to the way we were playing when we had the four game winning streak......We have to come into every game with the attitude we are going to outwork our opponent and then go out and do it.  In this case we didn't outplay them,” Baumann concluded.

Senior Matt Warren had an outstanding game with 10 rebounds and three steals to go along with his 25 points. Justin Novak chipped in five rebounds and Nick Perrin led the team with four assists.

Scoring Summary

North Branch 23 23 46

Totino Grace 30 27 57

Travis Peterson .............. 2

Justin Novak .............. 6

Jeff Olson .............. 1

Matt Warren .............. 25

Nick Perrin .............. 8

John Lindstrom .............. 2

Jake Chambers .............. 2

Total 46

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