NOC-Tonkawa shot nearly 50 percent from three and the Vikings fell in a hard fought 81-65 game on Saturday, Dec. 13.
The Vikings had an early lead in this one after falling behind 3-0. Caleb Alcineus crashed the glass for an offensive rebound and layup and Justin Oriakhi followed with a corner three for a 5-3 lead. Gelonni Ervin had a nice alley-oop slam dunk, but Tonkawa went on a 21-8 scoring run to take a double digit lead. Later in the quarter, Farvens Ulysse connected on a three and the Vikings got behind the Tonkawa defense several time for slam dunks by Judah Peña and Ervin, but the Vikings found themselves trailing 39-26 at the half.
In the second half, the Vikings continued to battle as all active plays played a key role as they attempted to comeback. Dupree Fletcher Jr had several drives for layups, Jordan Williams hit a couple pull up jumpers, Ulysse connected on some long baskets, but the hot shooting displayed by Tonkawa from long range was ultimately too much to overcome.
Ulysse led the way in scoring with 17 points off the bench. Ervin contributed 13 points, Alcineus had 10, was the leading rebounder with seven and Fletcher Jr also had 10 points for the Vikings.
The Vikings will break for the holidays and will return for their conference opener at Southwestern Christian on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Tip-off is set for 7pm.