By Nigel Maxwell

Vikings stumble in opening matchups at HOOPLA

Mar 23, 2018 | 8:00 AM

The North Battleford Vikings seniors boys’ and girls’ basketball teams will be looking to rebound Friday at HOOPLA following tough losses Thursday night.

The boys’ team led the Holy Cross Crusaders 64-57 after the third quarter and dominated for most of the game, but the Crusaders went on a huge run in the fourth quarter and rallied to win 80-72. Damon Dutton, who led the Vikings with 18 points including four three-pointers, was unhappy with the outcome.

“I’m very disappointed. It’s my last chance to medal at HOOPLA and I know we could have played better, especially down the stretch, but I guess it’s a learning experience for some of these guys,” he said.

The Vikings have now been bumped to the consolation side and will next face Regina Campbell at 11 a.m. at St. Mary High School. Dutton said his team has a few things to improve on.

“We need to improve on the glass quite a bit and help-side defence and just staying calm when the crowd gets loud and momentum starts to swing the other way,” he said.

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The tenth-ranked Vikings senior girls’ team faced the fourth-ranked Centennial Chargers in their opening contest and lost 84-65.

Guard Mia Cottini said she was happy when her team led by eight points at halftime.

“We weren’t coming into it expecting to win. The rural teams are generally not as good as the city teams, so we didn’t come in with high expectations, but winning at the half gave us a little bit of hope,” she said.

Cottini led her team with 35 points, including ten three-pointers.

“I felt like I had a pretty good game and the other girls played pretty good too, once our post Abby [Neufeld] was fouled out that was a real big issue for us,” Cottini said.

The Viking senior girls’ team will play Friday at 12:45 p.m. at Sask Polytech versus Saskatoon St. Joseph.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell