GUERNSEY – The Guernsey boys varsity basketball team had three tough games this past week and came out on top in two of those contests.

Their enormous task began Feb. 8 as they traveled to Lusk to take on the Tigers in a tough nonconference contest. 

The first quarter the Vikings came out strong and had an upset in the early view as they took the lead at 10-7. Lusk battled back in the second quarter and managed to tie the game at the half, 21 apiece. 

The third quarter has been the Vikings Achilles all year and once again, the Vikings came out of the locker room flat and gave in to Lusk pressure. The Tigers built an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter and although Guernsey matched them in the fourth, they couldn’t get out of the third quarter hole they had dug for themselves.

Although the Vikings had the slight edge on the boards 24-23, they couldn’t get past an ugly third where they amassed most of their 19 turnovers.

Brock Hohnholt led the team in scoring with 16 and also in steals with three.  Justin Malcom finished with eight points and six rebounds and led the team with three assists, Brian McCoid had seven points, Tristan Hohnholt had six points and three steals to tie him for team leader, Cole Skilbred had five points and 13 rebounds.

The boys then went on to play in Wheatland the very next night and set the tempo with their fast-paced defense and 8 steals for the game.

The first half had the Bulldogs holding a slim lead at 27-25, taking advantage of a last second buzzer beater. Out of the locker room once again after the half the Vikings gave up three more points and had a five-point deficit coming into the fourth quarter.

Then the explosions went off, showing perhaps the best fourth quarter of the year, outscoring the Bulldogs 21-7 and winning the game by a margin of 58-49.

B. Hohnholt was on fire hitting 71% from the field and scoring 25 points and also tied for the lead in assists with three. He pretty much had carte blanche in the lane and was virtually unstoppable on his penetrations to the hole. McCoid also had driving layup success and scored 11 points and led the team with five steals. T. Hohnholt ended up as the third Viking in double figures with 10. Justin Malcom contributed eight points.

Feb. 13 the Vikings traveled through blizzard conditions and high winds to Rock River where they defeated their conference foe Longhorns 46-36. The Vikings will have another away game this Friday when they travel to Hanna for a 7 p.m. match-up. Saturday they will finally return home to play their final regular season game against Rock River. Guernsey is one game back of the conference leading Southeast and their record now stands at 10-5.