After a back and forth game that went into double overtime, the boys basketball team (10–8) secured the win against the Paint Branch Panthers (13–3) on Friday, in a 70–67 victory.

Both teams ended the first quarter with 11 points, as the Vikes had difficulty adjusting to the Panther’s fast-paced rhythm, guard Josh Weinberg said.

“We started off a little flat in the first quarter,” Weinberg said. “We didn’t really have a flow going, and they were going a little too fast for us.”

By the second quarter, the Vikes were slowly but surely getting into their rhythm and working their way towards their pace. But, the Panthers outscored the Vikes by four points by the end of the half, and guard Alex Sanson had an upsetting foul which put a damper on the Vikes on the defensive end.

At the start of the second half, the Vikes continued to struggle on the defensive end, as the Panthers went on a scoring roll, said Weinberg. But by the end of the third quarter, the Vikes were on top by one point, winning 43–42.

It was fourth quarter for the Vikes, Weinberg said, that they were able to bring it all together and come back defensively.

“We dug in deep,” Weinberg said. “It was a nice quarter because we got some stops when we really needed to.”

The squad was able to bring the game into overtime when Sanson made a key free throw with 17 seconds left.

It was the first time this season that the Vikes went into overtime, but that didn’t shake them.

“We played really hard and never gave up,” forward Michael Bass said. “The intensity was really strong, our bench’s energy was really strong, and the crowd gave us a lot of momentum.”

With this powerful win under their belts, the Vikes hope to continue this momentum into their next game against Magruder on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.