Vikings Double Up On Royal Falcons

Despite their best efforts the South Hill Royal Falcons JV boys basketball team fell against the Vanier Vikings JV squad 80 - 41 on Wednesday evening.

It was all about a chess board and plan.

South Hill Royal Falcons player Seth Kohl goes up for a layup early in the game - MJ Independent photo

The Vikings had a simple game plan with a few major pillars. Key to their game plan was shutting down one element of the Royal Falcons attack said Vanier Vikings junior boys head coach Richard Adams.

“We had a game plan going into this. We knew that if we could shutdown their top player Seth (Kohl) we would have a chance doing what we did to them like the last time we met. That was our whole game plan,” Adams said.

Kohl was held to 19 points on the evening by the Vikings. Kohl often scores in the higher twenties in games plus garners assists on baskets by setting up plays.

“Once we put in the press and he got out of his game that’s where our game came into play,” he said.

“We had a game plan. We executed it and it worked out.”

Adams said the coaching staff was extremely happy on how the team played.

“In our last game we were told by the ref and a couple of other players and a coach of another team they’re impressed in how much we’ve improved,throughout the year. So that meant a lot to me,” Adams said.

“My kids are amazing. Without them…they really worked their butts off and I’m happy. I’m very proud of them.”

Despite how well the Vikings gave been playing Adams said they should look at work on their man-to-man and passing.

“Once we get our passing down and our man to man defence we’ll improve in that aspect,” he said.

Asked about the Vikings use of man to man defence against the Royal Falcons he said “we knew that in our first game we used it and dominated them we knew we had to use it a second time.”

Adam’s said they had expected to see the Royal Falcons press the Vikings and had a press break in play if it happened.

The Royal Falcons however didn’t press and used a standard defence that the Vikings took advantage of.

It was a noticeably tired and disappointed Royal Falcons team after Tuesday evening’s loss.

The team has played a flurry of games over the last few days including their first win of the season at a weekend tournament and a strong outing Monday evening against Assiniboia.

The Royal Falcons were looking forward to a stronger outing on Wednesday evening.

“We didn’t execute the best today. We played really well on Monday against Assiniboia. Things went really well and today we just couldn’t hold onto the ball,” South Hill Royal Falcons head coach Kalen Senecal said.

“Lots of turnovers early. We tried to put on a press and it just didn’t work out,” he said, adding “we just were running things quite as smoothly as they should be. But that’s OK.”

The turnovers came on many occasions as the Vikings intercepted second passes that were long and looping throws to get past the Vikings defence.

The Vikings’ press had its effects and Senecal said it’s something the team needs to work on

“We need to get better at running a press break we haven’t had the time or opportunity to practice that,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to slow down and correct those kind of mistakes.”

The Royal Falcons have been busy over the last little while with Tuesday evening’s game their sixth game in seven days.

“I don’t know if that’s connected. The kids are busy. They’re tired and we’re just trying to do our best,” Senecal said.

Despite the loss he pointed to the Royal Falcons had a major breakthrough picking up their first victory of the season on the weekend against Central Butte.

There other two games in the round robin tournament were competitive for the team.