Too little too late. This is the best way to describe how the first round playoff match up between the Las Positas Hawks and Diablo Valley College Vikings.

When I spoke to Las Positas forward Spencer Wood I asked how his team feels going against the Vikings, his response was, “Obviously we’re going to have our hands full with them, but I don’t think they’re going to outmatch us.”

I then asked what he thought the of the strengths of his team were and he said, “I think it’s a little bit of everything. We have size, we have speed… I think we’re a pretty well-rounded team.”

Spencer’s analysis of his team proved to be correct. 5 out of the 7 players that saw time on the court for the Hawks scored in double digits.

This was highlighted by Kameron Johnson’s double-double. Scoring 18 points and collecting 12 rebounds and Caleb Baskett contributing to the offense with 17 points and 8 assists.

But the Vikings played hard throughout the whole game. With a half time deficit of 41-33, they headed to the locker room to regroup, but they weren’t done battling.

Once the Vikings came back out on the court you could tell coach Coccimiglio had lit a fire under his teams’ butt. DVC guard Rodney Pope came out on a mission, hitting a few big threes to start the second half strong for his team.

Pope, along with Jovontae Carelton attacking the rim and connecting on his free throws, sparked the second push to get their team back in contention.

The Hawks met this challenge by switching to a full court press. This led to some sloppy turnovers and rushed play by DVC.

Once Viking center Eric Nielsen fouled out with 5:18 left in the game it started getting out of hand. Las Positas had the clear size advantage at the beginning of the game, and without Nielsen patrolling the paint, the Hawks could get a bucket almost every time they came down the court.

With about 2 minutes left the game turned into a foul fest with the Vikings hoping to be able to stay in the game by account of some untimely misses for the Hawks. Even though Las Positas only hit 51.6 percent of their free throws overall, they were able to bury the ones they needed to close the game out.

The deficit was too large to overcome. When the buzzer sounded the final score was 87-71, with Las Positas riding off into the sunset towards their next playoff game against Feather River on March 4th.