VCSU Vikings Roll Past Oak Hills Christian, 85-63
Special to Times-Record VCSU – The Valley City State men’s basketball team continued its winning streak Sunday with an 85-63 victory over Oak Hills Christian College.
Freshman guard Cayden Rickard had a career game in his first start as a Viking, tallying 15 points, four assists, and four steals on Sunday.
“With Joshua Kelly and Tate Hebrink out, we weren’t scared because we know Cayden is good enough,” said head coach Ryan Montgomery of Rickard’s performance. “When we recruited him, we knew he was a great scoring and passing point guard.”Three more Vikings scored in double figures Sunday, led by Chris Thompson with 19 while Jalen Addison added 17 and Hunter Sand scored 15. Sand added a career-high five steals, while Thompson and Addison each added three. Kevin Schramm led the rebounding efforts with a team-high nine boards while Connor Entzi added six rebounds and four assists for the Vikings.
Valley City State is now 8-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Oak Hills falls to 4-7 overall this season.
Valley City State led by as much as 16 points over the first ten minutes as they paced the game with full-court pressure. The Wolfpack inched closer as they got back within two points on a pair of free throws from Deontray Anderson with 4:44 on the clock. From there, the Vikings scored the next eight straight points to regain a double figure lead and held onto a 4636 lead at halftime.
The Wolfpack scored in its first two possessions to open the second half, closing the gap to trail by just five points. Chris Thompson answered with a threepointer and a layup on the next two Viking possessions to regain the double-figure lead they would hold onto the rest of the way.
As a team, the Vikings scored 26 points off of 23 Wolfpack turnovers and scored 46 points in the paint Sunday. Oak Hills narrowly edged the Vikings on the glass, out rebounding the Vikings 37-36.
With four players out, Coach Montgomery was proud of the team effort Sunday. “With how we play, four guys is a lot. I’m proud of our guys to battle through that,” he said. “This is a good group and we faced a lot of adversity in this game.”
Valley City State shot 49 percent from the field (35-72), 41 percent on three-pointers (12-29), and 43 percent from the free throw line (3-7). Oak Hills shot 36 percent from the field (24-67), 26 percent on three-pointers (8-31), and 78 percent on free throws (7-9).
Doug Merida led Oak Hills with 22 points and three assists. Devin Session added 20 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Wolfpack.
UP NEXT: Valley City State resumes conference play next weekend as they travel to Dakota State on Jan. 8. The women are scheduled to tip at 5:30 p.m. and the men will follow at 7:30 p.m.