Vikings lose Regional Final to Lions
ADEL – With the Des Moines Christian Lions trailing 8-6 at the end of the first quarter in the 2A-7 Championship game, they quickly turned the tables on the AHSTW Vikings starting the second quarter on a 12-0 run that secured a 47-36 victory.
The Vikings finish their season with a 21-3 record, including an exciting regular season 52-50 overtime victory to the Denison-Schleswig Monarchs and winning their first two tournament games over the Panorama Panthers, 87-57 and the Van Meter Bulldogs, 64-49.
“I’m super proud of them,” said Vikings Head Coach G.G. Harris. “Obviously not the result that we wanted at the end, but this is a strong, resilient group. They are going to do great things beyond the game of basketball. Credit Des Moines Christian. They outplayed us tonight and that’s the heart of competition.”
Junior Nick Denning got the first bucket of the night hitting a shot from 3-point territory, but it didn’t take long for the Lions to get on the board when Junior Tate Platte made a bucket, making it a 3-2 game.
The Vikings crowd got on it’s feet when Senior Kyle Sternberg came down court, making a layup, putting the Vikings up 8-2 and giving them a 5-0 run. The Lions got back in the game closing out the quarter on a 4-0 run, making it an 8-6 Vikings lead entering the second quarter.
The Lions got going right away when Carsen Theis tied the game at 8, getting the Lions fan base on its feet. He added another shot right after on the next possession giving the Lions their first lead of the night at 10-8.
The crowd erupted even more when a long pass went to Sophomore Lion Seaton Ingram and led to a slam dunk, putting the Lions up 12-8. Another Lions basket was made and Harris called a timeout.
Senior Cole Scheffler was fouled on a made shot ending the Lions run. Scheffler added the extra point, cutting the Lions lead to 7. Sternberg added one more bucket before halftime with the Vikings trailing 18-13 entering the locker room.
“That wasn’t our best half of basketball,” Harris said. “There’s 16 minutes out there to play better. They were getting too many easy looks and we were taking too many tough looks and so we’ve got to find ways to move the ball better offensively. Going into the second half, we talked a lot about simplifying our reads, isolate our reads so everyone is looking at the same thing and get on the same page and we’ve got to limit their runs.”
The Lions didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal starting the third quarter on a 8-0 run, putting themselves up by 13 and forcing another timeout from Harris. Following the timeout, Senior Brayden Lund got in on the action with a basket, putting his team down 26-15.
Sophomore Luke Sternberg was fouled, making 1 of 2 free throws, getting the lead back to 10 points. The Lions head coach Jason Van Mersbergen called a timeout with two and a half minutes remaining in the quarter.
When play resumed, Platte made a 3-point shot, following by a bucket from [Kyle] Sternberg, putting the Lions lead at 11. Soon after, Scheffler hit a shot from 3-point range, putting the Vikings back within single digits of the Lions at 31-23.
Just before the buzzer went off, Denning snuck in under the hoop for a layup, putting his team down 33-25 entering the final quarter.
With under five minutes to go, Lund was fouled sending him to the line, where he made 1 of 2 free throws, missing the second attempt, [Luke] Sternberg grabbed the rebound and made the put-back shot to keep the Vikings within range of the Lions.
Harris called another timeout with less than two minutes to go. When play resumed, Lund made a bucket, getting the crowd on its feet, followed by a steal from [Luke] Sternberg that led to another basket, putting the Vikings down 41-36 and immediately forcing a timeout from Van Mersbergen.
The Lions added a few more buckets and celebrated their Regional Final victory, getting their 18th win, ending the Vikings run.
For the Vikings, Seniors Brayden Lund, Cole Scheffler, Kyle Sternberg, Aidan Martin, Ryan Wedemeyer, Jacob Coon and Abe McIntosh won’t return due to graduation.
“We’ve talked for a long time about rising up and putting this thing on a different level,” Harris said. “This group certainly did that. There was a lot of weight put on their shoulders as sophomores, even more so as juniors and then again as seniors. I don’t think anyone really understands what that pressure is like for a 16, 17, or 18-year-old kid. They embraced it and went to work everyday. They’ve competed a structure where if anyone comes after them needs to honor the efforts they put in with the same amount of effort and more.”
During their 21-win season, history was made by multiple players, including Scheffler setting a new assist and steals record, Lund setting a new all-time points lead and [Kyle] Sternberg reaching 1,000 career points.
“No better guys to do it,” Harris added. “They put a lot of time in and they put us on the map and so to be able to have your name on the board or solidify their name in AHSTW history, it’s the cherry on top and it’s well earned.”
While the seniors won’t return, Harris is optimistic about the future of Vikings basketball and is confident that the underclassmen will return and this experience will make them better and stronger.
“That’s probably the hardest thing is the guys that we’re losing they don’t get to lace them back up and wear a Viking uniform, even if they go and play at the next level, which a lot of them can,” he said. “The guys in the locker room, there are some that get to lace it back up again and put the Viking uniform on, so hopefully that drives them for the next 365 days.”