DANVILLE —
The Danville Vikings may have lost in Friday night’s matchup against Normal West, but the Viking boys are moving right along. The Maroon & White lost 60-54 to the Wildcats but continue to improve from where they were at the beginning of the season.
“We took a step forward, I saw a lot of improvement, a great tenacity on defense but unfortunately we beat ourselves,” Danville coach Gary Tidwell said. “There were three things that cost us in the second half: Our turnovers, free throw shooting and transition defense.”
The Vikings had the burden of playing against senior forward Austin Stewart, who scored 30 of the Wildcats 60 points.
“He started out well made a couple shots early and got into a flow but a lot of his points came off transition layups and free throws. Obviously he’s a great player, but we’ve got to be able to answer on our end and we didn’t do that.” Tidwell said.
The Vikings looked very strong in the first half. Though they trailed in the first quarter 23-17, Danville answered with a very impressive second quarter.
The Wildcats were held to just four points in the second quarter as Danville put up 16 and led 33-27 at halftime.
“Everyone was helping each other out,” Viking forward Jaron Cunningham said. “Our help defense was awesome and everybody was playing great man to man defense and really locked them down.”
But in the third quarter, the lead started to slip away. Normal West started with a 6-2 opening drive and later scored 10 in a row to tie the game with just a few seconds left. Stewart hit a go ahead two pointer that led to a 45-43 lead going into the fourth and final quarter.
“We came out with intensity, playing hard, good defense but in the second half we kind of let it slip away,” Cunningham said. “We played bad defense and that led to easy offensive points for them.”
In the fourth Danville tied it up twice but never retook the lead.
“Knowing where we are as a team, we could have won this game.” Cunningham said. “The good thing is we know where we are at as a team and we’ll come prepared to play (today).”
Tonight the Vikings face off with the Peoria Manual Rams at the Danville High School gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.
Sports
Related Photos
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Jaron Cunningham (32) and Dennis Hightower (23) try to block a pass by Bryce Bronke of Normal West during Friday’s game at Danville High School. Deb Edwards/Commercial-News
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Marcus Merriweather of Danville pressures Bronke.. Deb Edwards/Commercial-News
Discussion
Vikes take step forward
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