Vikings end season undefeated in district play
<p>Camillia Lanham/Bigfork Eagle Connor Coleman puts his eyes on the basket before releasing the basketball against Florence.</p>
Bigfork’s Vikings edged out a 47-46 win against Florence in the final seconds of Friday’s game and pulled off a come from behind 55-46 victory versus Thompson Falls on Saturday.
A defensive battle played out against Florence in the Vikings’ gym, with both teams scoring under 50 points and Bigfork holding the Falcon’s number two player to just three points.
“It was hard to score,” Vikings Head Coach Kurt Paulson said. “It was the battle of the top two teams in our division, we were just lucky enough to win by one.”
The last quarter of the game saw many fouls and a knee injury for Bigfork’s Chris Landon. His sprained ligament will keep him out for the next couple of weeks.
Ian Lorang put up 12 points, Chris Landon had 10, and Jackson Boese hit 9 points and 6 rebounds. Cody Dopps had 8 points and 6 rebounds.
While Florence beat the Vikes in rebounds, by three, Bigfork stole 10 from the Falcons and only lost the ball nine times.
“We handled the ball a little better than they did,” Paulson said.
The quarters progressed much like the game, back-and-forth, indecisive.
Bigfork lost the first quarter 19-14, came back in the second 9-3, than lost again in the third 10-9 and won the fourth, 15-14.
They took their win against Florence with them to Thompson Falls, but its spirit didn’t show until the second half, after a half-time regroup.
The Vikes put up 32 points in the last two quarters to Thompson Falls’ 18.
The first two quarters saw 12-11 and 16-12 consecutive losses, leaving the Vikes down by five as they went into the locker room.
“Thomspon Falls is a good little scrappy team,” Paulson said. “And we held them off, so I was proud of them.”
It was all about third quarter play, when the Vikes changed the pace of the game and put up 19 points to Thompson Falls seven. Bigfork kept the momentum going into the fourth with 13 to the Bluehawks’ 11.
Boese led the charge with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Connor Coleman pulled 11 rebounds as well, and put up 9 points.
“Chris was kind of my rebound guy,” Paulson said. “Those two kind of picked up the slack.”
Dopps put up 12 points and Austin Jordt put away 10.
Next up for the Vikes is to host the winner of Tuesday night’s game between Plains and Thompson Falls Thursday night at 7 p.m. as the district 7B tournament gets underway.
On Saturday the tournament plays out at Columbia Falls High School, with the consolation game at 3 p.m. and the championship at 7.