With a 64-50 win over the Chabot College Gladiators Wednesday night, the Vikings move on to the Final Four of the Northern California Regionals.
“We’re going to celebrate tonight for an hour then were going to start focusing for Saturday,” said guard Jordan Estrada.
The Vikings’ solid play in the first half was the key to the game.
With the game starting slowly on offense, guard Brian Goins hit a jumper to take the Vikings’ first lead at the 12-minute mark.
After that, the Vikings’ forward Rafael Carter went on a scoring tear, where he dropped 6 points on the Gladiators’ defense.
The Vikings were competing against a very physical Chabot basketball team. The Gladiators used their size to dominate the offensive boards early on with Jacob Noisat getting a few for himself.
Tempers were starting to flare when Chabot felt it wasn’t getting close calls early on, with both Noisat and Coach Denny Aye both getting technical fouls called on them for arguing close calls with referees.
When the Gladiators were frustrated, DVC went on to take a 39-23 lead to the locker room at half time.
A dejected Gladiators team walked back from the locker room as Aye tried to fire up his team.
Despite coming out a more determined team in the second half, Chabot could only cut the lead to as close as 12 points in the second half, with the Vikings advancing into the next round of the tournament.
The only moment that Vikings fans had to hold their breath during was when Big 8 Conference MVP Goins went down after an attempted rebound after an alley-oop attempt.
But Goins would walk of the court on his own power and sat the rest of the game with 21 points.
Now Vikings are looking forward to a tough matchup with their next opponent, Fresno City College, in Fresno on Saturday March 5.
But they aren’t worried
“It’s the final four, all of the teams are great now,” said forward Zach Payne.
Before the team found out who had won the game between Yuba City and Fresno, the guys were trying to figure out who they’d play.
All of them except Brian Goins.
“I hope the best team wins,” said Goins, “so we can play them. We just focus on the game and prepare like we always do no matter who we play.”