Vikings win OT regular season finale at Denison
DENISON - Senior Cole Scheffler dropped in a layup with less than 10 seconds to go Thursday night on the road, 52-50 over the Denison-Schleswig Monarchs that got the AHSTW Vikings their 19th win of the season on the road.
“Well I told my friends right before that I’m clutch and I saw they were doubling on Brayden [Lund], so I knew I had to take it to the rack,” Scheffler said.
The Vikings got off to a fast start over the Monarchs with Lund dropping the first bucket of the night. With the score tied at six, The Vikings took control going on a 6-0 run, taking an 18-11 lead into the second quarter.
Scheffler continued their run into the second quarter dropping the first bucket that gave the Vikings a 9-point lead. The Monarchs started to turn the tables a little when Senior Carson Seuntjens hit a shot from 3-point range, cutting the Vikings lead to 3.
Not long after, Senior Viking Kyle Sternberg was fouled, sending him to the line where he made 1 of 2 buckets, giving his team a 4-point lead. On their next possession, Sternberg got the ball and scored yet again, giving his team a 31-25 lead heading into the locker room.
“We know they’re going to go on runs,” said Vikings Head Coach G.G. Harris of Denison. “We know what’s going to happen. What can’t happen, is we can’t fall asleep while they’re going on a run, because then it doubles up. We just talked about tightening those things up, don’t fall asleep on defense, rotate the ball one more time on offense and good things will come our way.”
The Monarchs took a different approach to open the second half of the game, starting with a bucket from Junior Lance Arkfeld. A few plays later, Seuntjens made a 3-pointer, cutting the Vikings lead to 1-point.
The Vikings went on a 4-0 run, including a huge bucket from Junior Nick Denning. Seuntjens was fouled, made both free throws and kept his team right in the game trailing 37-36.
Senior Monarch Jaxon Wessel tied the game at 39 with a 3-point shot of his own and soon after, Junior Monarch Jake Fink gave the Monarchs a 2-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to tie the game when Sternberg made a game tying bucket less than a minute into the quarter. The Monarchs started to pull away a little, getting ahead by five points, when Seuntjens was fouled making a shot, added the extra point, putting his team up 46-41, forcing a timeout from Harris with under six minutes remaining in regulation.
When play resumed, Lund was fouled on a made shot, added the extra point, cutting the Monarchs lead to 46-44.
With four and a half minutes remaining, Scheffler tied the game once again with a clutch bucket and on the next play, Sophomore Luke Sternberg stole the ball from the Monarchs and made a bucket to give his team the lead back.
Seuntjens continued his dominance on the night tying the game up at 48. Both defenses got tight and nobody scored for the remainder of regulation, forcing an overtime game.
With the two and a half minute mark approaching, Kyle Sternberg was fouled, dropping both free throws, briefly giving his team a lead. Arkfeld then tied the game at 50.
With less than 10 seconds to go, Scheffler got through the Monarch defense dropping a bucket with less than 10 seconds to go and securing a 52-50 victory for his team.
“It’s unbelievably exciting,” Harris said. “The best part about it was our team was more excited than he was, which means your basket is our basket and that’s an attitude you want to have and to display that is huge. We ask him to do a lot and we don’t ask him to score, but when we need him to, it’s usually pretty clutch and a big basket.”
With the regular season at an end, the Vikings finished 19-2 on the regular season. Scheffler was a big part of it becoming the all-time assists and steals leader for the school and Lund making history in Tuesday’s game over Tri-Center by becoming the all-time points leader. Harris highlighted what stands out most about this team and their journey.
“Their willingness to commit to the defensive end all the time is the number one thing,” he said. “Also, believing in each other. This is a group that’s gotten so close off the court.”
The Vikings will have some time to rest before their playoff journey begins next Thurday Feb. 16 in the 2A-7 Second Round game against either West Central Valley or Panorama.
“We’ll get a nice shooting easy practice, take the weekend off and then three really good practices to prepare for Panorama or West Central Valley,” Harris added. “We’re really going to concentrate on us and do what we do really well, make sure we understand what they do and let these guys do the rest."