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The boys basketball team beat the Rockville Rams 55–42 Monday evening, improving their record to 7–7.

Out of the gate, Rockville struggled to keep up with the Vikings’ aggressive offense, and Whitman opened the game with 11 unanswered points.

“We jumped out there on offense and kept up the pressure on defense,” forward and team captain George Wilson said. “We prevented them from hitting any baskets for most of the first quarter, and that gave both our defense and our offense more confidence.”

Whitman started the game with a zone defense and was able to keep Rockville out of the paint, limiting their scoring opportunities. The Rams scored their first basket of the game with only 24 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

“We played a great zone defense,” Wilson said. “We held their offense to two points in the first quarter.”

The Vikings kept up the defensive pressure moving into the second quarter.

Whitman held Rockville scoreless for the first three minutes of the quarter, but the Vikings themselves also struggled to produce on offense.

“During the first half there were some stretches where we needed to improve offensively,” guard Abe Kuhn said. “We were forcing a lot of our shots.”

Going into halftime, Rockville had worked to cut the Whitman lead to 18–13. After the break, the Vikings switched to a man-to-man defense in order to shut down Rockville’s offense.

“In second half we got it together again defensively,” Kuhn said. Our Defense forced a lot of turnovers, and we ran up our lead.”

At the end of the third quarter, the Vikings held a 32–21 lead. During the fourth quarter, many of the Whitman starters were taken out to give other players playing time.

The Vikings went on to win 55–42. Wednesday the Vikings again face the 10–4 B-CC Barons on the road. The Vikings last played B-CC in December and B-CC came away with a 40–36 victory late in the final quarter.

“It’s going to be a good rematch,” said Wilson. “We’re ready to get our revenge.”