Montpelier, Vt – U-32 used balanced scoring as three players reached double figures and the Raiders held on to a slim half time lead on their way to 60-42 victory over Lyndon Institute in boys high school hoops action on Monday night.
The Vikings and the Raiders battled it out for the first eight minutes going score for score. Each team had an answer for one another as both teams registered 13 points and the score was knotted at 13-13 heading into the second stanza.
The Raiders picked it up a bit in the second quarter and were able to gain a small advantage over the Vikings. U-32’s offense began to click and threw in 18 points, while allowing Lyndon to score just 12. The Vikings defensive troubles allowed the Raiders to head into the second half with a 31-25 edge.
The main reason why the Vikings were still in the contest was because of the play of senior guard Jimmy Lau. Lau was on fire through out the entire first half, scoring 20 of his team’s 25 points, allowing them to hang with the Raiders.
But then U-32 found a way to contain Lau and this caused all kinds of trouble for the Vikings because no one was able to step up.
“At half time we were down but the kids had fought hard and played hard and we were just a couple of mistakes from having a tie game. In the second half they were able to concentrate two and three guys on Jimmy. And we just have to get someone to step up and score the basketball,” remarked Lyndon Coach Mark Smith.
The Raiders began to frustrate the Vikings offense once they took care of Lau and this decreased Lyndon’s point output substantially.
The Vikings were able to score only nine points in the third and eight in the fourth, which gave the Raiders some breathing room.
U-32 on the other hand was able to continue to score the basketball and tallied 13 in the third and finishing off with 16 in the final frame, giving them a large victory, thanks to the defensive efforts against Lau.
The Vikings were missing three key players due to illness and injury and this had a major impact on the game, because Lau is less depended upon when they are in the line up.
“This is not an excuse but we were missing our sixth man Luke Lin, who was hurt during warm-ups as well as David Tsai and Tyler Card who were out due to illness. So that is 3 of our top eight players out of the game. Missing those three guys really hurt,” noted Smith.
Lau finished with a game high 27 points, while no other Vikings reached double figures. Vance Brooks chipped in seven points in the losing effort.
Sam McArdle led the Raiders with 15 points, while Ryan Shea and Carter Austin-Bradley contributed 14 and 13 points respectively.
The Vikings drop to 7-10 on the season and travel to Thetford on Wednesday for a 7:00pm contest. The Raiders improve to 12-4 on the season with the win.
Score by Quarter
Lyndon 13 12 9 8
U-32 13 18 13 16
Box Score
Lyndon
Kyle Greenwood 1-0-3, Ivan Kuo 1-0-2, Vance Brooks 3-1-7, Chad Thrailkill 1-0-2, Jimmy Lau 9-4-27, Michael Cartularo 0-1-1.
Totals – 15-6-42
U-32
Jack Shea 3-2-8, Carter Austin-Bradley 6-0-13, Ryan Shea 6-2-14, Sam McArdle 4-5-15, Watumbi Noble 2-0-4, John Helme 1-1-3, Nolan Callahan 1-0-2.
Totals – 23-10-60
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