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The Viking boys' basketball team avenged a December loss by defeating Columbia Heights 64-56 on the Hylanders' court Tuesday, February 20.

Heights got out to a 2-0 lead 12 seconds into the contest. But, Nick Perrin's three at 17:31 gave the Vikings a lead they never gave up. Jake Chambers and Ryan Norman, who scored the first of three from behind the arc at 15:45, put the Vikings up 8-2.

The teams traded baskets for the next nine minutes. During that span, Eric Sampson, Perrin, John Lindstrom, Norman and Justin Novak scored, to help the Vikings maintain a six point lead. At 6:35, the Vikings led 22-16.

That trend continued for the rest of the half. As the clock ran down, the Vikings' lead never grew to more than seven nor less than four. When the teams went to their locker rooms, North Branch held a 30-25 advantage.

Chambers outscored the Hylanders 11-10 in the first four minutes of the second half. Before any other Vikings found the range, his efforts, including back-to-back threes, gave NB a 41-35 lead at 13:42.

Norman made his final three before Chambers' bomb at 11:51 gave the Vikes their first double-digit lead at 47-37. Heights cut the margin to 48-43 in the next four minutes. But Norman hit three freethrows, Perrin drained his fourth three pointer and Novak scored for the Vikings, building the lead to a game-high 11 points (56-45) with 5:40 remaining.

Then, Heights went on a three minute, 9-0 run. With 2:53 left, the Viking lead had been slashed to 56-54. But, the Vikings' freethrow shooting saved the victory. Norman hit two at 2:43. Bryce Hunter hit one at 2:13 and added a pair at 1:07, giving NB a 61-56 lead.

In the final minute, Hunter added an insurance basket and Perrin made one from the foul stripe, to make the final score 64-56.

"Columbia Heights tried a variety of pressures and we were able to get things out of the flow of our offense," said Viking head coach Bill Baumann.  "For the most part, we held our composure very well and we were able to take advantage of their pressure defense.  They were very quick and we had to play good position defense with a lot of weakside help."

North Branch 30 34 64

Columbia Heights 25 31 56

North Branch Scoring

Ryan Norman 14

Nick Perrin 13

Jake Chambers 20

Justin Novak 8

Bryce Hunter 5

John Lindstrom 2

Eric Sampson 2

Total 64

Robbinsdale-Cooper at NB

The Vikings hosted the powerful Cooper Hawks Friday, February 23. The home fans cheered the Vikings as they battled the much taller, very athletic visitors all night. But, in the end, Robbinsdale won the game 63-55.

"Against Cooper, I was pleased we didn't back down from them physically.  We were still at a mismatch, but we held our own," coach Baumann said. 

The Vikings got off to a slow start on the offensive end. In the first seven minutes, only Jake Chambers' off-balance, leaner from the paint found the mark for NB. But, the Viking defense was effective and the home team trailed 8-2. "As long as we stayed in front of them on the defensive end, we were in good shape," Baumann commented.

The margin was still six, when Cooper matched Justin Novak's driving two with a with 10:35 left in the half. In the next four minutes, the Vikings went on an 11-0 run that had the local fans thinking upset.

Novak started the surge with a 10 footer eight minutes into the period. Chambers scored on a putback and followed that with a whirling basket at 7:50 before Nick Perrin gave the Vikings their first lead at 13-10. Chambers' pull-up gave the home team a 15-10 lead with 6:30 left. A minute later, Perrin found Chambers open on the perimeter. Chambers' three gave the Vikings an 18-12 lead, their biggest of the game.

The high powered Hawks got their offense flying before the half, outscoring the Vikings 14 to five over the last minutes of the half. When the buzzer sounded, Cooper held a 26-23 advantage.

Bryce Hunter and Chambers combined for nine points in the first five minutes of the second session giving the Vikings 32-31 lead. However, Cooper broke the game open with 11 consecutive points to move to a 42-32 lead at the 10:42 mark.

"When we were patient on offense we were very effective.  A team like Cooper doesn't like to play defense too long. They like to get out and run. So, the longer we were able to run our offense the fewer opportunities they had to score and we got some nice things out of the flow," Baumann added.

Perrin, DJ Charley and Chambers scored to close the gap to five. Midway through the half, the scoreboard read, Guest 44, Home 39. From that point, Robbinsdale took control, building its lead to as much as 12. The Vikings cut it to six in the last minute, but the Hawks refused to crash, hanging on to win 63-55.

North Branch 23 32 55

Cooper 26 37 63

North Branch Scoring

Nick Perrin 12

Jake Chambers 23

Justin Novak 10

Bryce Hunter 6

Eric Sampson 2

DJ Charley 2

Total 55

"I thought we really started to come into our own this week.  We played two very physical games and handled ourselves very well," Baumann added. "Tournament time is fast approaching and we are starting to find ourselves, or rather, starting to find out what type of team we need to be.  I think we could be dangerous in the playoffs. I would sure hate to play us." 

The Vikings complete regular season play at Spring Lake Park Friday, March 2 at 7:15.

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