TORRINGTON – In a hard-fought opening regional game, the Guernsey-Sunrise Vikings opened up play against Hanna Elk Mountain who had beaten them in last year’s regional game to gain a state berth. This year was a much different story, although HEM didn’t make it easy for the talented Vikes.

It took seven Vikings to break into the scoring column, taking the advantage on the boards, gathering 15 steals and only turning the ball over 12 times and keeping their poise while coming back from three quarters of deficit.

Vikings season leading scorer Brock Hohnholt had been sick with the flu and he played through his illness to gather just enough strength to help mount a fourth quarter comeback. Although the Vikings had a lot of shots early, the rim was not kind to the boys and were down by double digits a few times before mounting an end of the half run to go into the locker room, down by one point.

The third quarter saw a very scrappy HEM team that was bound and determined to prove that their 5-10 record was not going stop them from going to state. It wasn’t until 5:58 left in the fourth that Guernsey-Sunrise was able to tie up the score at 34 apiece on a penetration layup from Brock Hohnholt. 

The took the lead for good with another inside shot from Brian McCoid which mounted a momentum change and then the maturity to hang on in spite of a furious Hanna full-court press.

The Vikings watched the clock click to all zeros and the scoreboard was in their favor, as they won by eight points, 51-43. The win guaranteed them a place at the state tournament for the first time since 2014.

The leading scorer for the boys was Brian McCoid with 14 points as he shot 60% from the field. He also pulled in five rebounds. Tristan Hohnholt had 11 points, six rebounds and led the team with six steals. Brock Hohnholt ended up with nine points, tied for the lead in rebounds with seven and assists with three. Cole Skilbred played a big part on cleaning up the boards and had seven rebounds and seven points. Justin Malcom had six points, while Rawland “ROLO” Isabell and Hunter Warner each contributed two points.

The afternoon game on the docket was somewhat more intense and with Hohnholt still sick and now very tired in his body, still scored 10 points, but Southeast was in another realm altogether.

The Vikings hung around only down by eight points after the first quarter, but a second quarter letdown and scoring drought left the team 20 points down at the half, 38-8. Although the third quarter was better, the 40-point deficit meant a running clock and by the end of the game, the Vikings were worn-out and were defeated by a score of 67-20.

As opposed to many players scoring in the first game, only three players scored against Southeast and Hohnholt had half of the team’s offensive output. Hohnholt’s younger brother accounted for seven points and other than Aidan Noggle who hit a 3-point shot late in the contest, the other guns were silent.

Guernsey-Sunrise could only gather three steals from Southeast, which was way below their average, and were beaten on the boards and out-dueled in shooting percentage 48% to 24%. To Southeast’s credit, they only turned the ball over four times and looked like a well-oiled machine.

After a day’s rest, the boys were back at Torrington High School to determine the final seeding for the state tournament. The definite advantage was to win and play Dubois, but Kaycee stood in the way and defeated the Vikings 54-36 in a game that was much closer than the scoreboard indicated.

With 40 seconds left in the third quarter this was still a four-point game and Kaycee went on a damaging run, putting the deficit at 12 points which was a gap the Vikings just couldn’t get over.

Although the Vikings outplayed Kaycee in many aspects of the game including outrebounding the Buckaroos 41-32 and having 8 more steals, Kaycee had a better shooting percentage, mainly because a majority of their points came in the paint.

Both seniors, Hohnholt and Malcom led the team in scoring with nine points apiece while Skilbred ended up with eight points. Both McCoid and Isabell contributed 4 points apiece. Isabell and McCoid also tied for the team lead in rebounds with 9 apiece.

The Vikings moved their season record to 12-7 and their next game will be in the first round of the Wyoming boys’ basketball state tournament at 1:30 p.m. against Saratoga who was the number 1 seed in the west conference. The game will be played at the Ford Wyoming Center.