The Vikings conquered the Milpitas High School Trojans 66-36 in their third league game of the season, advancing their league record to 3-0.

Although the Trojans took the tip-off and the first point of the game, Paly reacted quickly with a three-pointer by Justin Hull (‘16) for a 3-2 lead. The Vikings maintained this lead throughout the rest of the game.

Hull’s three was one of many throughout the night. In total, the team was able to hit nine three-pointers.

“We had a lot of three’s tonight,” head coach Adam Sax said. “Usually if we get nine or 10 threes, good things happen.”

On top of making a lot of threes, Paly was also able to score from the post. Kevin Mullin (‘15) believes that they performed so well offensively because they were able to capitalize on Milpitas’ defensive approach.

“We kind of took advantage of their style of defense,” Mullin said. “They were trying to deny us the ball and we just ran our offense and we got a lot of open shots so that’s what worked well for us. And we hit shots, so, that always helps.”

Sax also noted the contribution of center Mike Grandy (‘16) in the team’s win over the Trojans.

“Mike Grandy made a big presence inside,” Sax said. “He got some baskets on the inside, he had some nice moves, jump hooks. That was nice because we haven’t had scoring inside all year. We have kind of relied on the three, but Mikey gave us something else that we haven’t had.”

One uncertainty coming into the season was the status of the Paly gym, which was set to be torn down. However, construction on the gym was postponed, which allowed the Vikings to have home court advantage during their season.

“We are always more comfortable [playing] here,” Sax said. “[We have only had] one loss in five years here in leagues, so it’s a huge shooting advantage and a disadvantage for the other team. [Other] teams seem to really struggle shooting here.”

Looking forward, Mullin believes that the Vikings should focus on rebounding at the post in order to compensate for their lack in size.

“We need to work on getting rebounds,” Mullin said. “We can’t be out muscled in the post. We have been having trouble getting some rebounds because we are kind of undersized, but generally I think we’ve been doing everything pretty well right now.”

In addition to working on defensive skills, Sax thinks that the team needs to work on moving the ball around and driving at the basket.

“We got to keep spreading the ball out and getting everyone involved,” Sax said. “Making extra passes is kind of what we live on. [We need to work on] trying to hit the open three and hopefully we will be able to drive more to the basket as the season progresses.”

Paly’s next game is away on Friday, Jan. 16 at 6:15 p.m. against Los Altos High School.