---

"We felt this was going to be an interesting week and it was," Viking head coach Bill Baumann said about his team's three games the first week in February. "Our goal was to win two out of three and, maybe get all three. Obviously, we fell short in that department. Our biggest concern is consistency, as a team and as indivduals. We just can't seem to find it from one game to the next."

North Branch 72, St. Louis Park 67

In a game that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate, the week started with a 72-67 win at St. Louis Park Tuesday, February 3. The Vikings fell behind early against the Orioles, but fought back to take the lead with four minutes left in the first period.

After SLP scored the first five points, the Vikings went inside to Aaron Good and Sean Franks. Both post men scored and, two minutes into the game, the score was tied at five. Midway through the half Good and Franks were still the only Vikings to score. At that point, the home team was up 21-13.

In the next minute, Jake Grandahl's three ball fell and Ryan Norman matched that before burying a freethrow. With eight minutes left, the Oriole advantage had shrunk to 21-19. Drew Lundquist took his turn next as he scored on a putback and, 30 seconds later, tied the score 23-23 with a pair from the charity stripe.

The defenses dominated play through the next couple of minutes. Then Norman drained two freethrows, Kyle Grote made a layup and Norman hit another three. With 2:42 to play, NB had a 30-23 advantage. As the seconds clicked by, Grandahl made his second three and Deon Farr scored while Park narrowed the gap with eight quick points. At the half, the visitor's lead was 35-31.

In the second half, the Vikings built an eight point lead by the 13:21 mark. In the next three minutes, on the strength of five offensive rebounds, the Orioles outscored the Vikings 10-0 to take a 46-44 lead. Then, the North Branch outside game grounded the Orioles as Grandahl and Mike Dahl hit from behind the arc. The Vikings led 5-46 with 9:39 left.

Two minutes later, another SLP offensive rebound resulted in a putback that created the game's sixth tie. It was 52 all with 7:24 to go. Three minutes later Franks had gone 5 for 6 from the freethrow line and Grandahl had dropped a two and a three and the Vikes were ahead 62-56.

After the Orioles cut the Viking lead in half, Grote shouldered the scoring load for NB. His field goal at 2:40 and two freethrows a minute later put the Vikings up 66-59. From that point, SLP attempted three pointers and stopped the clock by fouling North Branch. The Vikings were equal to the task, making six freethrows down the stretch, more than enough to preserve the conference win.

"We played really well against St. Louis Park. We handled their pressure really well and we were able to convert on the inside. We took away what they wanted to do on the perimeter and held them in check, for the most part," Baumann commented. "The first time we played them, they hit a lot of three's early in the game. We took that away until late when they hit a couple in desperation. We really focused on the little things and it paid off."

North Branch 35 37 72

St. Louis Park 31 36 67

NORTH BRANCH SCORING

Lundquist 4, Norman 8, Grote 16, Grandahl 14, Dahl 3, Good 12, Franks 13, Farr 2

Totino Grace 52, North Branch 50

Viking players, coaches and fans suffered through a very painful 10 minutes to start the boys' game Thursday, February 5. By that time, North Branch had fallen behind 20-2 and things looked hopeless. However, head coach Bill Baumann's squad never gave up. They clawed their way back to tie the game in its final minute before falling 52-50 to the Totino-Grace Eagles.

Neither team scored in the first two minutes. Viking junior Sean Franks broke the ice with a basket from the paint at the 15:25 mark. That's when things went bad for the home team. Totino went on a seven minute, 20-0 run that nearly buried North Branch.

The Vikings didn't score again until junior Kyle Grote was pushed to the floor with 6:45 left in the half. An Eagle player was whistled for an intentional foul and Grote connected on the first of two freethrows. Five seconds later, on an out-of-bounds play, Ryan Norman spotted Grote outside the arc. Grote doubled the NB total with the Vikings' first three of the night.

Senior Mike Dahl made the next Viking hoop possible. He grabbed a deflected ball while falling out of bounds under the Viking basket. Without moving his feet, he located Grote along the east baseline. Grote converted a mid-range jumper. Seconds later, the Vikings cut further into the Eagle lead with a pretty fast break. Grote took the rebound out of a scrum on the Totino end. A couple of quick dribbles found him with some open space in front of the Viking bench. He threw a crosscourt pass to senior Jake Grandahl who found classmate Aaron Good posted on the block. Good faked left, whirled right and scored from the lane.

The scoreboard reflected a 20-10 Totino lead with 4:50 on the clock. Good and Grote each scored before halftime and when the buzzer sounded the Vikings trailed 25-14.

"As well as we did the little things on Tuesday, we failed to do them in the first half against Totino. We fell behind 20-2 before we woke up and and started to play with some intensity and focus," Baumann said. "We found a couple of things that seemed to work late in the half and we made a halftime adjustment that seemed to work and give us a lift in the second half."

North Branch outscored Grace 8-2 in the opening minutes of the second period. TG opened the scoring before Dahl hit a two pointer and a triple and Norman added a three to move the score to 27-22 two minutes into the half. A putback by Grandahl, a Good freethrow and a Grote shot from close range, on a very nice interior pass from senior Deon Farr, had the Vikings inching closer. With 12 minutes left, the Eagles held a 31-27 advantage.

Just as it appeared the red and white were on a roll, Totino went on another run. This time they scored nine while the Viking offense was silent. With eight minutes left, the visitors seemed to have things under control with a 40-27 lead.

The Viking offense came out of hibernation and senior Drew Lundquist, Grote, Grandahl and junior Kosta Moore scored as the Vikings cut the deficit to 40-35 in the next three minutes. With 5:00 on the clock, it was TG 40, NB 36.

A minute later the Eagles had scored twice to advance their lead to eight before Moore scored on an old-fashioned three point play. With four minutes left, it was 44-39. In the next 60 seconds, the visitors pushed their lead to nine with a pair of hoops. The next minute featured a gliding, twisting, acrobatic layup by Norman and a long three-pointer by Grandahl. With two minutes left, the Fridley school led 50-44.

The Viking defense held firm and, when NB got the ball back, they patiently moved the ball until Dahl squared up for a three pointer from the top of the key. At 1:17, his triple made it 50-47. When Dahl hit another three, the score was tied with 50 seconds on the clock.

Those last seconds took a long time. The coaches plotted strategy during three timeouts, both defenses applied intense pressure and the fans really got involved. Despite scoring chances at both ends of the court, the score remained tied until Totino cashed in their size advantage and got the ball inside. With 1.4 seconds left, one of their big men scored the winning points.

A last-second, half-court Moore attempt was wide and the Viking comeback was thwarted.

"We knew what they wanted to do on the final play, but their player made an outstanding adjustment and found the open player underneath for a basket," Baumann explained. "We didn't lose this game at the end, we lost it in the first 14 minutes when we didn't execute."

Totino-Grace 25 27 52

North Branch 14 36 50

NORTH BRANCH SCORING

Lundquist 1, Norman 5, Grote 12, Grandahl 8, Dahl 11, Good 5, Franks 2, Moore 6

Superior (WI) 72, North Branch 52

As they had the night before, the Vikings got off to a slow start Friday night at home. This time, however, the Spartans, were too talented to let North Branch back into the game. Superior controlled the game for all but the first few minutes and defeated the Vikings February 6 by a score of 71-52.

Aaron Good and Mike Dahl scored in the game's first two minutes as the teams played to a 4-4 tie.

But, Superior scored eight points in the next 17 seconds. That gave the Spartans a 12-4 advantage and a lead they held for the rest of the game. Ryan Norman hit a three, Jake Grandahl scored on a fast break putback and Sean Franks scored from the inside to keep the Vikings in the game. But, the high energy Spartans continued to score at will. Midway through the first half, the port city team led 27-11.

Kyle Grote and Good scored two seconds apart to cut the margin to 27-15 with 8:08 on the clock. Superior quelled that North Branch mini-run and regained the momentum. The Spartans gradually built their lead and, by halftime, the visitors were up 37-22.

Norman and Dahl hit three's, Kosta Moore dropped a two and Grote went two-for-two at the freethrow line in the first three minutes of period two. Meanwhile, the Viking defense limited Superior to five points. The 10-5 start cut the lead to 10. With 15 minutes to go, NB trailed 42-32.

Franks' putback 30 seconds later made it a 10 point game again. NB hung around long enough to keep the crowd interested and, with 4:27 left, Good's final bucket cut the Spartan advantage to 61-50. The visitors scored the next eight points to end the Viking hopes and secure a 19 point win.

"Superior has an excellent team. They remind me of our 2001 state tournament team, not real big, but very aggressive and basketball savvy. They pass the ball extremely well and have at least one excellent shooter. We cut the lead to nine in the second half and had a chance to cut it even more but didn't finish and they regained their composure and took back control of the game," Baumann said.

Superior 37 34 71

North Branch 22 30 52

NORTH BRANCH SCORING

Lundquist 1, Norman 8, Farr 4, Grote 9, Grandahl 2, Dahl 7, Good 10, Franks 4, Moore 5, Dahlberg 2

---