The boys basketball team (11–7) fell to the Richard Montgomery Rockets (16–1) 63–53 Friday night.

The Vikes got off to a hot start with guard Josh Weinberg scoring 10 first half points to give the team a 19–8 advantage heading into the second quarter.

However, the Rockets dominated the second quarter, going a 13–0 run to start the quarter and forcing the Vikes to call a timeout. The team tried to contain RM guard Ryan Cornish but couldn’t stop him from making threes, pulling up from near half court on one of his attempts and draining it. The Vikes kept it close despite the Rockets’ run and only trailed 33–27 heading into the locker room at halftime.

The Vikes struggled to find the basket at the start of the third quarter, going scoreless for four and a half minutes, allowing RM to take a 39–27 lead with 3:28 left in the third. But, the team started to mount a comeback with guard Brendan Shaver hitting an and one layup to cut the deficit to six heading into the fourth quarter with RM leading 44–38.  

The Vikes got within three points in the middle of fourth quarter, but the Rockets started to pull away at the four minute mark. RM forward Miles Gally could not miss from three and used his 6’10’ length to deny the Vikes any easy layups. The team couldn’t stop Gally in the end and suffered a 63–53 defeat.

Shaver led the Vikes with 21 points and Weinberg added 19 points. Despite the loss, center Rodrigo Ruiz said that there was a lot to take away from the game.

“I think that one of our team’s greatest strengths is our ability to make adjustments and adapt our game plan to best our opponent and we will definitely bounce back from this game.”

The team next plays the Paint Branch Panthers (13–5) Feb. 11 at 7:15 pm at Paint Branch High School.