Vikes come out on top

The Vikings (17-3) continue to forge into unfamiliar territory as they head into the Western B Divisional Tournament with something in hand that they have not had in more than a decade — a first place trophy from a post-season tournament.

The Bigfork boys rolled past St. Ignatius on Friday with a 56-40 victory that sent them into the championship game against Troy on Saturday, which they dominated 77-45 in what Bigfork's head coach Paul La Mott called his team's best game of the season.

"I can't think of a game that we played better from start to finish, top to bottom than this game," La Mott said. "And that's two games removed from the worst game we had all season (against Whitefish)."

That stellar performance came without the team's starting point guard Evan Jordt, who had to sit out the entire tournament due to a pulled groin. Sophomore Ian Lorang took over in Jordt's place and did a an impeccable job, according to La Mott.

"Lorang, who has been getting better every game, though he started the season with some confidence issues, had his two best games of the season in this tournament," La Mott said.

Lorang started in a handful of games earlier in the season, but this weekend was the first time he ran the show without Jordt.

"I was pretty nervous Friday," Lorang said. "Saturday we were pretty riled up in the locker room and the crowd was really pumped up, so it wasn't so bad."

He wasn't totally alone though; Jordt was on the bench giving him pointers throughout the game.

Lorang didn't just step up to the challenge, he embraced it.

"It was the most fun I've had in a game ever because the crowd was really into it and the team was so pumped up," Lorang said. "It was my first real championship game and I loved it. It was such a fun environment."

Lorang was also a leading scorer for the Vikes as he and Christian Ker each scored 14 points and had four assists apiece. Those hefty contributions, along with Keenan Evans' 13 and Carter Sorensen's 10, allowed Bigfork to score 37 points in the first half and 20 points in each of the final two periods.

Travis Knoll contributed nine points for Bigfork, all but two of which he picked up on the free-throw line with his perfect 7-for-7 shooting.

Defensively, the Vikings held Troy to just five points in the first quarter, while racking up 18 points for themselves. The Trojans were able to pick up their scoring in the remaining three quarters with 14, 12 and 14 respectively.

"They were elated," La Mott said of the boys' response to the win. "I think that the accomplishment will sink in in the weeks and months to come. There were a lot of smiles."

In the third quarter, big pushes came from Sorensen, when he put in his second and third 3-point shots of the night, and Evans, who put in three shots from the field. Otherwise, the scoring was spread out with five to seven Vikings scoring in each period. Rebounding was spread out as well, with several boys grabbing three and four boards each. Sorensen and Ker did have strong showing in steals with four and three respectively.

"All of our starters played phenomenally, but we also got great contributions from our reserves," La Mott said. "It was incredible. It was like I couldn't make a bad personnel decision. Everyone I put in there started shining."

La Mott credits their solid play simply to their desire to win.

"They wanted it badly," La Mott said. "If we keep playing like this, then I think we can compete with anyone in the state."

Before the boys reached that championship game, they had to get past the St. Ignatius Bulldogs on Friday.

Ker put in a pair of threes and a field goal to score eight points for the Vikes in the opening quarter, but the rest of the team only came up with two more giving them barely enough to win the quarter 10-8.

"We jumped on them early and had a 10-2 lead (in the beginning of the first quarter) and felt like we could blow them out," La Mott said. "But, we started beating ourselves as we started making mental mistakes. We had 15 steals in the first half and only had a two point lead. Our conversion rate was abysmal."

Each team scored 14 points in the second quarter and Bigfork barely snuck by St. Ignatius in the third, 16-12. It was the fourth quarter where the Vikes really took control. Bigfork was led by Evans, who put in nine points in the final period — which was three more than the whole Bulldogs team did that period — and helped the Vikes to a 14-point fourth quarter.

Ker had the big arm on Friday night as well with 16 points, all but four of which were in the form of 3-pointers. Evans finished up with 11 points and Knoll added 10, eight of which he put in during the second half. Lorang scored just four points that game, but made nine assists.

The Vikes moved onto divisional tournament play yesterday, Feb. 24. Those results can be found online at www.bigforkeagle.com.

"We are going to continue to coach these boys and work to get them as far into the post-season as we can," La Mott said. "We're just going to have to see what happens. But, at the end of the day, they have accomplished something that can never be diminished or taken away from them."