NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Crescent Heights Vikings Niall Weich (9) and Ramec Nicimpaye (6) go up for a rebound during the South East Basketball Conference junior varsity championship game at Crescent Heights High School on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Vikings brought the Southeast Basketball Conference junior varsity basketball championship right down to the wire on Wednesday night at Crescent Heights.
Despite trailing by double digits early, the Vikings rallied to erase the deficit and steal away a narrow lead in the final two minutes of the game, but three straight layups from WR Myers Rebels big Luke Jensen snuffed out the comeback in a 70-65 nailbiter.
“It’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before so we just remained poised and composed, and the boys were able to battle back,” said Vikings head coach Sterling Hamilton. “We knew we were going to be in tough against Taber, they’ve got a huge post presence so we knew we would have to take a little bit of time and work our stuff around. We made it close, so we gave ourselves an opportunity to win.”
Hamilton added the effort just goes to show how far the Vikings have come over the course of the season. Despite being a visibly shorter squad to the Rebels, the Vikings climbed the ranks to finish first in the regular standings before dropping an evenly matched battle in the championship.
“We preach toughness all year,” said Hamilton. “There’s a great article by Jay Bilas. He wrote what toughness is and we call it our basketball Bible. It has every quality of basketball and how toughness relates to it. Every time we talk about it, it’s what does toughness say about rebounding? What does toughness say about sprinting the floor? What does toughness say about boxing out. It’s just about having that mental toughness.”
Jensen powered the Rebel offence with 27 points while Shawn Harris added 11 and Kade Jensen had 10.
Gavin Angstad led the Vikings with 19 points in the loss. Niall Weich added 15 and Keowen Bos had 13.
While they came up short, Hamilton says his Vikings showcased what toughness truly means in their silver medal finish.
“They earned it from me, the respect and how tough they grew over the season,” said Hamilton. “That jump from Grade 9 to actual high school basketball is a big one and the mental toughness part is huge. These boys had to learn how to get out of their comfort zone.”
