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Vikings sail away late in close game with Spartans
By: Jack Zwiezinski
Posted on:
McArthur, Ohio (WOUB) – The Vinton County Vikings hosted the Alexander Spartans Tuesday night. Both teams fought hard and kept it close in an extremely physical game, but VC pulled ahead 58-53.
Spartans center Isaac Waller tipped the jump ball and was able to take it right to the rim to start off up on the Vikings. The Vikings retaliated with a quick layup to tie it up. These two teams went back and forth all game. Vinton County ended the first quarter with a score of 18-16.
The second quarter featured more on defense and the physical play styles both teams came into this game with. The Vikings three ball came to life in this quarter, which compared with their dangerous finishing game, kicked their offense into high gear. Cobra Sharp would charge at the rim and could find shooters such as Hayden Reynolds, Nash Yates or Josh Montgomery alone at the arc to kick it out for an easy three points. Vinton County took the first half 29-25.
Coming back from halftime, these defenses kicked it up a gear. Rebounding was incredibly important for both teams as shots were not falling. Vinton County recorded 17 rebounds while Alexander recorded 15 rebounds. Isaac Waller led the Spartans with 7 rebounds, and Viking Luke Dimel grabbed 7 boards as well.
The Spartans were able to overtake the Vikings as Isaac Waller’s dominant paint game and players like Klaxton Hawk and Mason Morris started to heat up, ending the third quarter 41-39.
The fourth quarter saw the ramp-up of the aggressiveness and physicality of the game, the fouling picked up as the speed of the game picked up. Vinton County and Alexander stayed within four points of each other all throughout this fourth quarter, retaliating back and forth. The Vikings were able to pull ahead right at the end 58-53.
Vinton County point guard Cobra Sharp was the Vikings lead scorer, ending the night with 20 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Alexander was led by senior center Isaac Waller, who recorded 14 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.
When asked about the physicality of the game, Coach NJ Kight commented on the nature of the game and the playstyle. “You’re going to pick up fouls during the course of a game just being physical and aggressive, but you have to cut out the silly fouls,” Kight said after the game,
Vinton County (6-7, 5-1 TVC-Ohio) travels to Meigs (14-1, 6-0 TVC-Ohio) this Friday to face off against the top-seeded Marauders in a fight for their share of the TVC-Ohio title.