Vikings hitting stride at end of season, prep for Districts

Charlo High School Vikings boys basketball coach Gayle Decker has set specific standards of production he would like out of his offense in order to be successful as the team continues to prepare for Class C Western Districts.

The Vikings have won two of their last three contests defeating Clark-Fork 52-31 on Monday and winning against Phillisburg 69-35 Saturday at Charlo High School.

“We feel like 55 points is kind of a magic number and Landers Smith finished with 17 points, six assists, and nine rebounds,” Decker said. “When you have 17 assists and eight turnovers for the night and we were 10-of-15 from the free throw line, that really helps aid us in winning games. Phillisburg is in the middle of the pack in their conference. We played them man-to-man and created some turnovers. That was our best 32 minutes of offense we played all season.”

Vikings guard Tyson Petticrew was perfect in every phase of the game. Petticrew didn’t miss a single shot all night.

“It’s pretty rare for a kid to not miss a single shot,” Decker said. “When you see a kid make 4-for-4, that isn’t that big of a deal but when he is 10-for-10, that is rare. We ended up shooting the ball well as as team and Tyson didn’t miss a shot all night. He was 5-for-5 from the 3-point line, 3-for-3 from two pointers, and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.”

Decker said he felt he needed to improve some things in the second half of the Phillisburg game.

“We didn’t press in the second half and in the first half, we pressed a little bit and got some turnovers,” Decker said. We want to work on that and get better. Our kids played hard all night at both ends of the floor and we limited our turnovers. We were pretty productive at the offensive end and we didn’t turn the ball over as much as we did when we played against Darby.”

Against Darby on Friday, the Vikings struggled to maintain their offensive momentum they’ve developed in recent games.

“We just had a really bad first half and had a bunch of turnovers,” Decker said. “We were down by 17 by the end of the half. We came back in the third quarter and cut the lead to seven. We just couldn’t get any closer than that.”

Decker said he felt his team needs to limit their turnovers.

“In the first half, we had too many turnovers and didn’t have a lot of chances to really get going,” Decker said. “We played really well and moved the ball really well. We were able to get rid of turnovers. When you go 9-of-23 from the free throw line, that isn’t going to help much.”

Decker said his team is slowly and steadily improving as they approach District tournament time.

“I think again limiting the turnovers is a key,” Decker said. ““We’ve struggled but it seems like we are starting to come together. We are holding our own on the boards.”