Men’s Basketball storms the Raiders

Brandon Hladik

Staff Writer

It’s senior night and the Vikings are eager to get a win on their home floor in their final game before regionals.

The team faced off for the second time against the Fulton-Montgomery Community College Raiders, but the night started off on a different tone. The team and school payed a special homage to seniors Kleon Davis and Jordan Nelson. Both play a huge role in the team’s rotations and deserve every ounce of the admiration.

The game started off with the team’s prominent defense and fast break points off of turnovers. This team has come to be a defensive force each game, their consistency is what get them wins each night. Coach Long specifically feels that this has been the key towards success as of late. After the game he stated, “I think we were better prepared defensively. We were able to take away some of the things they were more successful at the first time around. Our effort was a lot better this time as well.”

The game was back and forth early on until the Vikings expanded the lead around the end of the first half to 15. Offensively it was the story of the two seniors. Combining for 41 of the 87 points, the seniors scored nearly half of the buckets. The team blew out FMCC in a tenacious victory.

This team is rolling into regionals. Their hot step has led them to a tremendous 20-9 record to finish off the season. In terms of moving forward there’s still a lot of questions but the team is steadily prepared.
“Right now we are not sure who we are playing so we have to wait and see,” said Long. He added, “We have today off and by tomorrow night we should know. I think it will either be Mohawk Valley or Jefferson. In either case we will be traveling to their site.”
The Vikings played Mohawk Valley twice and lost both times although not by much and won in the single meeting with Jefferson early in the season. Either team will pose a challenge to the team but with their new found defensive identity I feel this team can grind out a few regional post season wins.