Northside was looking for a rebound.
Tuesday night at the Viking gym, it was their rebounding that led the way as the Vikings pulled out the 64-47 non-district win over cross-county rival Hidden Valley.
Only four nights removed from getting beat down the stretch by a Cave Spring team that hit the boards with authority, Northside used the same effort to their advantage this time around.
“We wanted to do better tonight on getting loose balls and rebounding,” Viking head coach Billy Pope said afterward.
It was mission accomplished, as Northside got a number of second-chance baskets throughout the contest with Viking junior forward Carlos Basham playing a key role in the paint.
Northside also arguably had an intangible advantage in that they were playing their third game of the season, while it was the season-opener for Hidden Valley.
“Playing in our third game of the year ended up helping us tonight,” Pope noted. “You don’t know if it will make a difference. Sometimes the other team can come out hot.”
The Vikings were the ones who came out of the gate on fire. Jumping out to a 9-2 lead, Northside led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter before settling on a 21-9 advantage after the opening 8 minutes.
That margin gave the Vikings the opportunity to bomb away from the perimeter throughout the second quarter. The Northside lead reached 16 before Hidden Valley finished the half on a 5-0 run that sent the teams to the break with Northside up 36-25.
The Titans got to within 7 points on a Luke Marston 3-pointer and free throw early in the third quarter, but Northside used their play off the glass to go on a 8-0 run culminated by junior guard Kendrick Tucker’s trey that gave the Vikings a 15-poiunt lead.
Hidden Valley would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way, and the Vikings led by 23 points with 2:38 left before the Titans finished with a 8-2 run to settle the final margin. Hidden Valley was plagued by 16 turnovers that short circuited any comeback.
“We didn’t play very well tonight,” Hidden Valley head coach Troy Wells said afterward. “Northside is a talented and athletic team. They beat us inside.”
“We kept the heat up once we got the early gap,” Pope added. “Give Hidden Valley credit, they kept it close in the third quarter.”
Tucker led the Northside attack with a game-high 22 points, including 3 of the Viking 7 baskets from behind the arc. Basham followed in scoring for Northside with 11, while junior Clarence Finney netted 9.
On the Titan side, senior Graham Whitaker had 10 points, with Marston and senior Jaret Butenschoen each scoring 8 points.
“We’ll look forward to our home game next week against Blacksburg,” Wells pointed out. “We’re a better team than we showed tonight.”
Bill Turner