All Vikings in overtime - HERALD PRESS

All Vikings in overtime

By John Dempsey sports@h-ponline.com | Sunday, November 25, 2012 

For 32 minutes, Huntington North looked for the way tobuilda lead and put Mississinewa away in its home opener Saturday night.

It found the way in the 33^rd.

Taking its time to work the ball around to Noah Reed, the senior guard drilled a 3-pointer on the Vikings’ first possession in overtime. That spark ignited a flame as Huntington turned a 58-58 tie in regulation into a 77-63 overtime victory.

Mississinewa coach Mark McFarland couldn’t help but be disappointed after watching his Indians drop a closecontestto Huntington North for the second straight season.

“It’s a heartbreaker, especially after coming so close last year and close again (Saturday),” the second-year coach said. Last year, the Vikings prevailed 79-75 in Gas City.

“Our team plays hard and that’s how we want to play. We don’t care what the name on your jersey is or what conference you’re from,” McFarland said. “We’re going to come at them. That’s how we’re going to try to win games.

The Indians tried to match Reed’s shot, letting fly with their 26th 3-pointer of the game, but the Vikings rebound and 34 seconds later the game was essentially over as Trenton Kern nailed another shot from behind the arc for a 66-58 lead.

Mississinewa didn’t score until 1:22 was left when Jay Butler hit a 3-pointer. The Vikings put the game away at the free-throw line as they hit 9 of 10 to finish the game.

Viking coach Rob Irwin felt his team could have played a better game, especially after its performance against Homestead Wednesday.

“We didn’t play with near the passion and determination that we did Wednesday against Homestead and I’m not sure why. Maybe I didn’t have them prepared enough,” he said. “When it came time to make plays though, we did it.”

With the game tied at 11, Mississinewa scored the final five points of the first quarter to go up 16-11.

The Vikings spent the next 14 minutes playing catchup.

A 44-35 Mississinewa lead with 1:31 left in the third quickly evaporated. Huntington North ran off 12 of the next 14 points over a three-minute time span with Kalvin Miller and Kyle Platt scoring five each. After Miller put the Vikes up 46-46 with 6:25 to play, the lead changed hands five more times.

Mississinewa’s Seth McPheron, who scored a game-high 26 points, hit a 3-pointer to give the Indians the lead with 2:24 but Miller, who had 21 himself, tied the seconds later and neither team could score in the final two minutes.

Irwin felt his team struggled against the Indians in the halfcourt.

“Our defense wasn’t good. I thought we played well against Homestead and they have better players,” he said. “We couldn’t get them stopped in the halfcourt.

“We didn’t defend well at all. They were punching it in and kicking it out for 3s. And, we let them get up on the offensive boards.”

Mississinewa hit 8 of its 30 3-point attempts – 4 of 15 in each half.

“We could let it fly more, but that’s not going to do us much good when we come up against the better teams in the conference,” Irwin said. “We’d like to find ahappy mediumof inside out and let our shooters shoot.

Huntington hit 23 of 48 from the field (47.9 percent), including 6 of 14 from behind the arc. The Vikings were 25 of 33 at the line.

The Vikings’ seniors led their team’s offensive output. In addition to Miller’s 21, Noah Reed scored 18, including 11 at the line, and Kern had 15, missing just one shot all night. Platt added another nine.

“The guys turned down shots when they should have taken them. They’re still getting used to what I want them to do,” Irwin said. “Kalvin scored and that was good, but it’s still not the Kalvin I expect to see. He and Trenton are still struggling with when to let it go and when to reverse it. That’s just going to take some time.”

Huntington North hosts Southwood Friday before a visit by Warsaw Saturday.