Vikings boys basketball prepares for the second half after strong first half showing

Charlo boys basketball coach Reese Cox is a strategist.

Prior to each game Cox meticulously tailors his game plan to shut down the defense team’s top scorers.

When the Vikings played Plains, a team that as of Dec. of 2016 was ranked No. 1 in Class C prior to losing to the eventual champs Arlee on Jan. 27, Reese’s strategy was to shut down their leading scorer Aaron VonHeeder.

“The whole week we were trying to prepare the boys (to play against Plains) because we knew that Plains was a real test and the real deal,” Cox said. “We got the VonHeeder kid out, got some fouls on him and tried to work against the smaller group. That strategy seemed to work and we were able to get some early fouls on him. He didn’t play much of the game because he got into foul trouble.”

While preparing for Plains, Reese emphasized and hoped beating one of the top-tier teams in the District would be a “statement.”

“The whole week we went in trying to prepare the boys and we told the boys ‘this is a real test,” Cox said. “Plains was the real deal and we wanted to let everyone know that Charlo was here and hoped this game put us on the map because we wanted to have the boys have that attitude. We aren’t the same Charlo team that we were last year. This is an entirely different squad and a different type of ball. We wanted to make a statement to the division and the rest of the state that Charlo basketball is here.”

The Vikings fell short of their ultimate goal with a 66-56 loss to the Plains basketball team Friday night at Plains High School. At the end of the first half they nearly took care of their goals.

The Vikings, who found themselves down by four points at halftime, nearly came from a 26-point deficit to cut the lead to 10 by the end of the game.

“We came out clean, took care of the boards and I thought ‘we are going to win this thing,’” Cox said. “There was a lot of excitement to being that close to Plains. In the second half, the boys opened up with four straight turnovers and that created the separation because we gave up a lot of points. We gave up the points and Plains was able to get a lot of second-chance rebounds and didn’t take out boards.”

Reese said he was “happy” with the boys’ performance in spite of the loss.

“We are very, very happy with what the boys were able to achieve and able to get down having a Plains team that is really, really good,” Cox said. “They are well coached by coach Cole. We were down four at halftime, then down 26 points, and lost the game by 10. I was very happy with what we were able to achieve and excited at the next go-round with Plains.”