Vikings get off to a hot 2-0 start on the new season
WAUSA — Hey, this winning thing at Wausa is starting to look pretty good.
Taking some of the momentum from a competitive fall and football season, some of those Viking boys have moved over to the hardwood and the basketball court and so far, so good for head coach Tim Schindler.
The Vikings opened up the campaign with two big wins, 63-44 at home against Plainview and 61-57 at Boyd County in gut-check fashion Saturday night.
“The boys played well: They moved the ball well and played with great pace,” Schindler said. “We had very consistent quarter scoring on Friday. Saturday, Boyd jumped out early on us but the guys kept their composure and battled back.”
The Vikings got a 31-point effort from Jaxon Claussen and 11 points and eight points from Addison Smith and Jon Nissen to help them pull away from Plainview while
Claussen had 17 points, despite battling foul trouble and Nissen and Smith went for 16 and 14 to help Wausa wrap up an unbeaten week.
“Jon and Addison stepped up,” Claussen said. “It’s really going the way it’s supposed to go so far. Addison’s one of our best shooters on our team and he can knock down 3s like no other. Jon is one of our big men and in past years he wasn’t as physical, but we have been working with him every day in practice getting him tougher.
“It’s starting to pay off. (Against Boyd County) he was getting boards and putting them up. Without that, we probably wouldn’t have won the game.”
Against Boyd County, Claussen fouled out, but the Vikings rallied and finished off an 18-12 fourth quarter to win the game.
“My team pulled it off,” Claussen said. “They worked their butts off and it was awesome. We came up with the dub.
“The beginning of the year, before our games started, we weren’t working great together, but coach brought it up to us that we have to work together to be successful. It came to us that we needed to focus on that and we needed to play as a team.”
It’s also a lot about just getting more experience after being a mostly underclass-dominated roster a year ago.
“The juniors that played have stepped up and are doing a great job,” Claussen said. “That’s helped a lot. We’re pretty young. Our offense is pretty good, but our defense, we’re not boxing out really good and giving up a lot of offensive rebounds.
“(Against Plainview) we were a little hesitant, but we worked on that and the next game our defense stepped up (after being down 13-4) and shut them down and our offense started to score points like we know we can.”
The Vikings led 26-25 at halftime after the slow start at Boyd County.
“That was huge, we knew they’d come out firing on their home court,” Claussen said. “In the beginning it was rough, and at halftime we knew we had to keep pushing. They got the lead a little bit, but we were able to finish it off.”
Claussen noted that the Plainview win was a bit rockier than the margin indicated as the Vikings would let up on multiple leads until the closing quarter when they put the game away.
The Vikings played Creighton Tuesday and wrapped the week Saturday against Elgin/Pope John.
“We gotta keep working in practice on improving and playing defense,” Schindler said. “Playing defense every possession and ending that possession with a rebound is our main goal this week.”
Boyd County 13 12 20 12 — 57
Wausa 4 22 17 18 — 61
SCORING Wausa – Jaxon Claussen, 17; Jon Nissen, 16; Addison Smith, 14; Cashe Carlson, 11; Josh Wattier, 2; Devin Rosberg, 1. Boyd County – Ethan McBride, 29; Derris Hansen, 12; Zac Rihanek, 8; Timothy Atkinson, 4; Zander Kluckman, 4.
Wausa 16 15 16 16 — 63
Plainview 11 12 9 12 — 44
SCORING Wausa – Jaxon Claussen, 31; Addison Smith, 11; Jon Nissen, 8; Cashe Carlson, 7; Brandon Kristensen, 3; Josh Wattier, 2; Devin Rosberg, 1.
