Eight years ago, the Vikings boys basketball team peaked at just the right time, upsetting multiple ranked opponents on their way to the program’s only state title. In the state championship matchup at UMD’s Comcast Center, the Vikes beat perennial powerhouse Eleanor Roosevelt in a game the Washington Post described as “one of the biggest upsets in Maryland tournament history.”
As this year’s Viking squad prepares to return to Comcast to take on Annapolis in the state semifinals Thursday, they seem to share many traits with the 2006 team. These Vikes, similar to the team eight years ago, have been the underdogs throughout their run to the regional championship last weekend.
“[Just like in 2006,] not many people expected us to come out of the region and advance to Comcast,” coach Chris Lun said. “Our team knew we could do it”
Both teams have focused on defense as their “backbone,” senior Adam Lowet said. This season’s team has held opponents to an average of only 40 points over four playoff wins.
“On defense, everyone’s buying in and getting each other’s help,” Lowet said. “When we play that kind of team basketball, we are tough to stop.”
Compared to the 2006 squad, these Vikings lack a clear dominant player, featuring a balanced lineup with four players averaging over seven points a game. Sophomore Kyle Depollar, a transfer from The Heights, leads the team with an average of 13 points a game and senior Josh Fried controls the post, scoring just shy of ten points each contest.
“Whereas they had a clear superstar in Michael Gruner, a Division I player, we don’t have that star,” Lowet, a captain, said. “It can be any guy on any given night. There’s no one person that the other team has to stop.”
The Vikings ended the regular season in a slight slump, losing two out of their last three games. But in the postseason, they have “really dug in on the defensive end of the floor,” Lun said. They’ve also been sharing the basketball well on offense, spreading shots across their many scoring threats.
In addition to Depollar and Fried, senior Max Steinhorn has added more than four assists a game and senior Ben Castagnetti has been on fire as of late, scoring a career-high 18 points in the team’s first-round playoff win against Kennedy. Senior Alex Lesley and sophomore Jake Kuhn are added threats beyond the arc. And the Vikings are playing with high intensity for all 32 minutes on their current playoff run.
“We’ve been able to put complete games together,” Castagnetti said. “From the tip to the final buzzer, we’ve been able to be intense on the defensive end.”
The Vikings, now ranked eighteenth in the area by the Post, will face a tough Annapolis Panthers squad in the state semifinals, a team also coming off multiple upset victories. The Panthers are led by senior Juan Brown who averages over 20 points a game. But the Vikes’ balanced play might just be enough to keep their run as the underdogs going.
“This team plays for each other, and they are great teammates,” Lun said. “It makes all the difference.”