In the boys basketball showdown between Vanden and Will C. Wood for first place on Tuesday night at Wood, Vanden grabbed the opening tip and Viking head coach Micheal Holloway yelled “Go!” His team quickly shot up court and Isaiah Moore drained a 3-point shot from the left wing.
That set the tone for the first quarter, when Vanden raced to a 19-12 lead. After that, the game settled into a battle between two excellent defenses. The Vikings emerged with a 48-37 win to tie the Wildcats for first place in the Monticello Empire League. Both teams are now tied with Vacaville High with identical 7-2 records with one game to play.
Vacaville hosts Wood on Friday night, while Vanden hosts Rodriguez.
Wood defeated Vanden 60-57 in their first meeting at Vanden on May 7. Vanden is not making excuses for that loss, but the tragic shooting of teammate Daniel Hughes on Easter Sunday and the subsequent tension as Daniel held on for his life before finally succumbing weighed heavily on the Vikings as they tried to play out the season.
“A kid as close as Daniel was to us and to myself, we hadn’t laid him to rest yet so that was weighing on our kids,” Holloway said. “It’s tough for these kids to be best friends, brothers with a kid like that and have to play with that on their minds. So once we were able to lay him to rest and know he was secure and in a better place the kids decided it was that time.”
Takai Emerson-Hardy, Vanden’s 6-foot-7 center, often settled for 3-point shots in the first matchup with Wood and didn’t seem his usual intimidating presence on the court that night. In addition to having Hughes on his mind, there was another reason — he had just gotten his second COVID shot that day and was feeling pretty tired from the side effects.
“He was a little out of it, light on energy, wasn’t able to move (like) his typical self,” said Holloway. “And he knew it. That’s why he came out aggressively today.”
Although Emerson-Hardy only scored six points, he was a tiger on the offensive and defensive glass and got Wood’s big man, Nem Drca, into early foul trouble. Midway through the first quarter, Emerson-Hardy grabbed an offensive rebound, missed a shot from close in, rebounded it, missed again, rebounded it, and put it back in to give his team an 11-8 lead.
“We got the league championship on the line right now,” Emerson-Hardy said. “I wasn’t knocking down my shots but I was doing everything I could on defense to get stops. We just came into it more aggressive this game. Last game we had a lot of stuff on our minds. It’s time to wake up now.”
Agjanti Miller, the catalyst on offense for the Vikings, said he was extra motivated for this game.
“This time there was a lot of revenge because they got it (last time),” he said. “At the time with Daniel’s funeral, we were going through a lot of times when we weren’t really getting our head straight. Now we were able to.”
The Vikings have 15 players and Holloway used almost all of them.
“We have a lot of players that can contribute in a lot of different ways and that showed tonight,” he said. “We are able to throw bodies on top of bodies on them and mix in defenses. That tells you how intelligent the players are, being able to adjust midgame and on the fly.”
Miller may want to go into coaching someday. Before the game, the smooth-shooting 6-foot-3 guard suggested to Holloway that the team use a zone defense. Vanden usually plays man-to-man.
“I asked coach, ‘Hey everybody goes to zone and we struggle. So how about we go to zone?'” he said. “And it worked tonight.”
The Vikings switched to zone midway through the first quarter. It worked so well in the second quarter that they held Wood to three points as they carved out a 27-15 halftime lead.
“It was a plan when to switch and how to switch,” Holloway said. “So the kids were ready.”
Senior Omari Davis played a strong game both offensively and defensively. The 6-1 point guard did a nice job running the offense and showed some springs when he dunked on a fastbreak early in the first quarter. He had two buckets in that period and canned a three-ball in the second quarter.
“He’s just a special kid,” Holloway said. “He takes on all challenges when it comes to guarding the best player or the main ballhandler on the other team. He’s one of our best shooters. When we challenge him, he takes it personal and gets it done.”
Isaiah Moore, who arrived on the Vanden scene this year because his military family moved to serve at Travis Air Force Base, also had an outstanding game.
“He played very well,” said Holloway of his 6-5 senior, who is headed to Cal Poly Pomona on a basketball scholarship. “He rebounded the ball well, finished around the paint, shot it particularly well.”
In the low-scoring contest, the Vikings were very balanced. Miller and Moore each had 11, Davis added seven, and Emerson-Hardy and Tyler Thompson each scored six.
“What happened today is we were able to all get buckets instead of one person,” said Miller. “We were able to all contribute, move around, play better defense.”
“When we all contribute, when we all get going and we all score, we get running, we probably got the W,” agreed Emerson-Hardy.
The Vikings put the game out of reach in the third quarter when they outscored Wood 12-7. Thompson hit a trey from the left corner to make it 34-17 with 2:35 left. After Krishna Clay hit a bucket for Wood, Emerson-Hardy came down with a defensive rebound and threw a football pass to Miller, who made a layup as he was fouled and then completed the three-point play for a 36-19 lead with 1:35 to go in the quarter.
Sage Martinez led Wood with seven points, while Clay and Drca had six apiece.
It was Senior Night for Wood, who honored graduating seniors Drca, Martinez and Jacob Condez before the game.
Vanden won the junior varsity contest, 66-45.
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Vanden High boys basketball downs Wood, ties for first place - Vacaville Reporter
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