In their first game of the season, the Palo Alto Vikings (3-0) dominated over the Overfelt Royals (0-3), winning 81-42 Friday night at Palo Alto High School.
Viking head coach Jeff LaMere said the Vikings’ offense has evolved since last season.
“Offensively last year, we had Jorell Clark, who scored 25 points a game,” LaMere said. “He was one of the best players in all of Northern California, so we ran our offense primarily through him. Now our offense is a little more diverse. I think we have some really good shooters.”
The game opened with a three-pointer from Paly, but the Royals responded with a free throw and a three-pointer to take an early edge. Viking senior Kevin O’Brien answered with a two-point shot. After a string of exchanges, Viking junior Aadi Tripathi converted free throws and later scored off a long pass, helping Paly secure a 20-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw the Vikings succeed offensively. Viking senior Jake Wang scored nine points, including two three-pointers and several layups. By halftime, the Vikings had built a commanding 46-20 lead.
According to Viking junior Tanmay Adya, the team’s chemistry and patience were key to its success.
“Going into the game, my mindset was to be physical and aggressive, get to the rim and go up strong,” Adya said. “We did well on looking inside, driving the ball and really being patient instead of just throwing it over.”
The third quarter continued Paly’s dominance. With two three-pointers from Adya, the Vikings led 64-32.
According to LaMere, the team played hard throughout the game, but they also needed to look out for fouls.
“One of the things we talked about was trying to have effort and intensity for the full 32 minutes, and we accomplished that,” LaMere said. “We needed to play smarter. We have to realize that when we have 14 fouls in a quarter, maybe you have to let off the pressure a little bit.”
The Vikings kept chugging forward with their lead going into the fourth quarter. With both Adya and Viking sophomore Ian Cierniak making 3-pointers, the game ended in a Viking win, 81-42.
Overfelt head coach Jamile Young said his team knew this would be a challenging match.
“We know that Palo Alto is a tough school,” Young said. “The expectation was just to come in and compete.”
The Palo Alto Vikings are set to play their next game against the Leigh High School (1-2) at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, at Palo Alto High School.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source palyvoice.com ’
