Scheffler makes history in Vikings win
Senior Cole Scheffler made history for the AHSTW Vikings Tuesday night in their 74-34 victory over the Riverside Bulldogs by becoming the all-time assist leader.
“I think he controls the tempo and pace of play whether he’s on offense with the ball in his band or defensively he sets that tone too,” said Vikings Head Coach G.G. Harris. “It’s awesome to see the assists in the stats because he’s played with three 1,000 point scorers and that doesn’t happen without somebody getting him the ball and we’re really fortunate to have Cole on our team.”
The Vikings set the tone right away in the first quarter as Senior Brayden Lund opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. Senior Abe McIntosh threw up a buzzer beater to end the quarter that put the Vikings up 21-8.
The second quarter got underway with the Vikings continuing to dominate on the offense end with Lund dropping three point shots and layups that forced Riverside head coach Nick Kroon to call a timeout with just under three minutes until halftime.
Riverside cut the Vikings lead to 16 before Harris called a timeout with a minute and 20 seconds to go. The Vikings then went on a 5-0 run before heading into the locker room, leading 41-20.
“We talked about a few things that we needed to get better at on offense,” Harris said. “It really helps when you shoot the ball well too and it was nice to see these guys shoot the ball well. We were keeping the intensity up on the defensive end of the floor, which allows us to play in transition, which is what we want to do a majority of the time.”
The third quarter got going with the Vikings continuing to dominate with help from Kyle Sternberg and Scheffler, who both dropped three pointers in the second half, including a layup from Sternberg with under five minutes remaining in the game that got the crowd on its feet.
The clock expired and the Vikings celebrated their 11th victory on the season remaining undefeated. Senior Brayden Lund led the way in scoring finishing with 25 points.
“Tonight, I kind of finally got my outside shot to fall a little more which felt good,” Lund said. “It felt good to knock some shots down, everyone was knocking down shots and it was a great team win. It was good for us to finally see the ball go through the hoop a little more.”
The Vikings next opponent will be the Underwood Eagles on the road Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles will look for redemption with the Vikings beating them earlier in the season 66-55 on Dec. 2.
The Eagles are led by Junior Jack Vanfossan with 131 points, 101 rebounds and 31 assists.
“It’s always tough playing Underwood,” Lund said. “It’s never easy to score down there or do anything. They have a lot of athletes that are very athletic. We’re going have to match up as best we can and execute on offense and defense and go there and get the win.”