The Petersburg Vikings won Friday and Saturday’s games over the Craig Panthers. The Viking varsity boys team also defeated the Panthers twice in their match two weeks ago — but Craig didn’t go down easy this weekend. Rick Brock, who coaches the boys’ teams, explains:

“On Friday, we actually started out a little bit slow,” says Rick. “I don’t know why we weren’t very intense at the beginning of the game. So we’re behind at the end of the first quarter, 11-to-10. That kinda carried until about halfway through the second quarter. We started playing better, ended up with the eight point lead at halftime and then had a really good third quarter — outscored them 17-to-three, and then kind of played even from there. So we ended up winning 59-to-38. Kyle Biggers had 27 points. He had 21 of those 27 in the second and third quarter. He just played really well. And our guards did a great job of getting him the basketball and in scoring position. He got himself in a good spot. Then I really felt that all of the guard play that we had for the weekend did a really nice job of getting us into our sets. So, yeah — a good, good start to the weekend.”

“Then, Saturday, we kind of talked about the fact that anytime you have a high-scoring game like that, the other team will change their defensive philosophy. Kyle still ended up with 10 points. But he really had two or three guys around him for most of the evening. Our other post, Jack Engell, was in foul trouble most of the game on Friday. He had a good game on Saturday and ended up with 18 points. Another big key for us on Saturday was our outside shooting — we ended up with some key threes throughout the ballgame because Craig was packing a key on us. We were able to hit some critical shots when we needed to lead our first half-court defense. We held Craig to 10 points in the first half on Saturday, so we had a nice cushion there at the beginning: 28-to-10. And that kind of played again, even throughout the second half. But I’m really happy with our team. [Craig] has a couple of guys that can shoot the ball real well and penetrate. So, being able to hold them to 10 points — I thought that was very good.”

Last week, some varsity players were out sick or with injuries. The team is still recovering their numbers, and Coach Rick says they’re getting back into fighting shape to face off against Metlakatla in two weeks.

The Varsity Lady Vikings lost to the Craig Lady Panthers on Friday, 19-to-54. Saturday was a tighter game. They lost, 23-to-44. Dino Brock coaches the Lady Vikings. Though his team ultimately lost both games, he says they managed to turn it around in the second half of their last game.

“On the Varsity games: lots of growth, lots of good things,” says Dino. “We started out talking about trying to be more consistent offensively. And through the first three quarters, I thought that we did that. Saturday, during our fourth quarter, we had some different lineups and so we weren’t as consistent. But I thought the way the girls showed that on Friday was huge. So, we came out Saturday and struggled a little bit to start with. But then when we got ourselves rolling about three minutes left in the third in the second quarter. We actually outscored Craig for the whole rest of the game, which was big for us, played a great second half energy level defensively, moving the basketball. It had a lot of people going like: That was the best half you guys have played the best you guys have looked. So that was really exciting. The growth we keep making every weekend is huge. And that’s what we want. That’s what we’ve been talking about all season.”

Coach Dino says the team made improvements since their last game against the Lady Panthers, two weekends ago. He says the team has been practicing shooting, rotations, and defensive maneuvers. 

On Friday, the JV boys team beat Craig 47-to-27 — and then again on Saturday, 50-to-10. The JV girls lost both games to Craig — Friday 19-to-58, and Saturday 25-to-49. 

The varsity teams will be on break this weekend while the JV Vikings compete in their multi-high school tournament here in Petersburg.