Boys’ basketball took to the court in a hostile environment at Gunn High School to cap off the five game showcase between the two rival schools. Aubrey Dawkins (‘13) and Aldis Petriceks (‘13) both finished with a game high 16 points.
Keller Chyst (‘14) had a monster block in the first minutes that set the tone for the rest of the game. The Vikings then went on a 10-2 run forcing Gunn Head Coach Mike Ferolino to call a timeout. After the timeout Gunn went on a scoring rampage going on a 10-0 run to end the quarter. The Vikings found themselves trailing 26-17 at the half surprising many of the spectators in the stands.
“Gunn played a good game,” Paly assistant coach Erik Olah said. “They were better shooters than we thought and we gave them a lot of open looks.”
Gunn continued the momentum to start the second half, and Paly trailed half way through the 3rd quarter 33-19 forcing head coach Adam Sax to call a timeout.
“It was probably the biggest deficit we have had in a couple months,” Olah said. “We have not faced a double digit deficit since december but I thought they could handle it and they did.”
The Vikings started to turn it on after the timeout. Petriceks threw a nice lob to Dawkins for a massive throwdown alley-oop that silenced the Gunn faithful. The next possession, Petricks forced a turnover and took it for an easy lay in.
The Vikings started to take complete control of the contest as Dawkins had two more throwdowns in transition that put fans from both teams on their feet. It started raining threes for the Vikes as Petricks and Elion Tuzer (‘13) hit two threes forcing Gunn to burn another timeout. The Vikings outscored the Titans 22-13 in the 3rd. Chryst then hit another three at the buzzer to tie the game at 39-39 going into the 4th.
Clark Schmutz hit a corner three to start the 4th to give the Vikes their first lead of the game.
“[Clark] was huge though, he had a huge three and a nice litte assist, Clark was key in tonights game,” Olah said.
The 4th quarter belonged to the Vikes as the Titans struggled to find the basket. The Titans only scored 2 points in the final quarter of the game, as Tuzr hit another three from the corner with minutes left to seal the victory the Vikings.
The Vikings improved to 22-1 overall and remain perfect in league play at 11-0. Paly will play their final regular season game at Milpitas next friday.
