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Columbia Heights 76, North Branch 57

The North Branch boys' basketball team ran into a hot shooting bunch of Columbia Heights Hylanders Tuesday, January 26 on the Viking hardwood. Heights blistered the nets from all over the court and applied effective full-court pressure that consistently bothered the Vikings through the first 10 minutes while building a 33-17 lead. The home team was never able to put a serious dent in that lead as the Hylanders defeated NB 76-57.

Aaron Good was was the only Viking to score more than once in those crucial first minutes. The senior post collected eight of the Vikings' early points on a variety of shots from the paint. The Vikings' other inside man, Sean Franks also contributed in the early going. The junior center hit from the lane and passed to senior forward Deon Farr for an easy hoop at 7:05. That basket, plus a Jake Grandahl fast break layup, 20 seconds later cut the CH lead to 33-21.

However, just when things were going NB's way, the Viking offense went into hibernation. Through the final 6:45, the red and white offense was limited to one Franks score. Meanwhile, the high octane Heights offense continued to run on all cylinders. They added 13 points during to give them 46 at the half, twice the North Branch total.

In the first half of the second period, the Viking offense was more efficient. Led by Ryan Norman's seven points, NB kept their hopes alive by scoring 15. However, CH matched that total and the North Branch deficit was still 23. With nine minutes left, the Hylanders led 61-38.

In the next 90 seconds, Columbia Heights ended any doubt about the outcome with an 10-0 run. Grandahl scored 11 consecutive points to close the gap. But, his late surge only made the game seem closer than it really was.

"We have to learn to execute a lot better," said Viking head coach Bill Baumann. "Against Columbia Heights, we didn't react well at the beginning of the game and Heights took advantage of that. We played a little sluggishly and they attacked us."

Columbia Heights 46 30 76

North Branch 23 34 57

NORTH BRANCH SCORING

Norman 8, Farr 6, Grote 4, Grandahl 16, Moore 5, Dahl 2,Good 10, Franks 6

Robbinsdale Cooper 87, North Branch 58

Friday, January 30 the Vikings traveled to Robbinsdale Cooper to face the undefeated Hawks. North Branch stayed close for a while, but the visitors were unable to keep the pace as the state's third ranked 4A school defeated the Vikings 87-58.

The Vikings took their only lead of the game when leading scorer Kyle Grote, assisted by Ryan Norman, hit a three in the game's first minute. Cooper came back to take a 7-3 lead before Deon Farr scored to cut the Hawk lead to 7-5. Sean Franks hit two freethrows for NB to cut into a Robbinsdale 10-5 advantage and Grote drained his second triple to tie it in minute six to create the contest's only tie.

Norman halted a 10-0 run three minutes later with an old-fashioned three point play. That made the score 20-13 in the Hawk's favor. Norman's layup was the only Viking basket that interrupted the Hawk's next surge. Cooper outscored North Branch 13-2 in that span, building its lead to 33-15 with five minutes left in the half. From that point, the teams traded baskets for the rest of the half and the Vikings trailed 41-24 at the half.

The teams traded points for the first few minutes of the second period and, when senior Viking center Aaron Good made a layup at the 15:30 mark, the Robbinsdale lead was 47-31. From that point, the Hawks gradually expanded their lead and, when it was over, the Vikings took the long bus ride home.

"Against Cooper we had a good game plan of not allowing any fast breaks, taking care of the ball and finishing near the rim," coach Baumann explained. "And when we executed that, we were very effective. But, if we had a momentary lapse, they were by us."

Cooper 41 46 87

North Branch 24 34 58

NORTH BRANCH SCORING

Norman 7, Farr 5, Grote 14, Grandahl 12, Dahl 4, Good 5, Franks 7, Kvale 1, Ehrnriter 3

After the two defeats, Baumann commented, "We are not playing with a whole lot of confidence right now and when you play that way you tend to make mistakes. In this conference you can't make a lot of mistakes because the teams will jump all over you. Cooper and Heights are quicker and more athletic than we are and we cannot lose concentration for a moment. We have to be fundamentally sound. Both teams beat us to loose balls and, even when we did box out, they could just go over the top and get the rebound. We need all our players at their best every game in order to compete and right now we are inconsistent."

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