The Pelican Rapids boys basketball team played their third game of the week February 11 as they hosted the Park Christian Falcons in a game played at the Fargo Civic Center.

The Vikings found themselves down at the half 40-31 to the Falcons, but were able to pick up their defensive intensity in the second half holding Park Christian to 27 second half points as Pelican Rapids came from behind for the 70-67 win.

“We once again struggled on the defensive end in the first half as we gave up way too many easy looks at the basket to the Falcons,” stated head coach John Gullingsrud. “They lost their leading scorer in Steele Senske to a sprained ankle on the opening tip, but were able to pick up the slack as their other players knocked down their shots. We did a better job of containing the ball in the second half which is an area we have struggled in this season.”

The Vikings had a balanced scoring attack in the win as they placed four players in double figures. Jacob Gottenborg led the team with 17 points, Oakley Kress had 16, McHale Korf 11, and Nick Schermerhorn had 10. Zack Sjolie just missed joining those four in double figures with 8 points.The Vikings made 8 three pointers in the game and were 14-16 (88%) from the free throw line.

“This was a nice win for us as we hopefully were able to figure out some things to help us be successful on the defensive end,” Coach Gullingsrud said. “We broke our shooting funk for the week which was also nice to see, and we did a nice job of converting our free throws down the stretch once we were able to get the lead. We were 8-8 from the free throw line in the last two minutes, and we needed every one of those.”

The win puts the Vikings at 6-15 on the season.

They have two HOL road games this week as they will travel to DGF on Tuesday, February 14 and Barnesville on Thursday, February 16 in a boys/girls doubleheader.