On Sunday, February 19^th the Saint Johns Catholic Prep Vikings (20-10) defeated the Indian Creek Eagles (17-8) 67-53 to win the MIAA C Conference basketball championship. The game was played at UMBC in front of approximately 1,500 people. The Vikings had not been able to compete for a championship for the last two years because the basketball program had been an independent, they were not in a league.

The Indian Creek Eagles came out of the gate hot leading 27-18 at halftime. Everyone on the Vikings kept their composure though. The Vikings came out and outscored Indian Creek 25-14 in the third quarter, making it a tied game at 42-42 going into the fourth quarter.

“I told them at halftime, this is it guys, this is the last game of many of your careers, you need to step it up, this game is not out of reach,” said Coach Cheung, the Vikings head coach.

The Vikings had six seniors who were playing for a championship in their last game; they knew they had to leave everything out on the floor. It was the team’s goal at the beginning of the year to win a championship, and they were desperate to end their careers that way.

“I was willing to do anything to help my team win, we are a close team and are willing to sacrifice personal stats for the good of the team,” said senior guard Nick Peifer, who scored 16 points in the championship game.

The Vikings were led by the senior duo of Evan Austin who had a game-high 22 points and Peifer, who scored 34 of their combined 38 points in the second half of the championship. Andrew Rivera, another senior, also added 10 points to help the Vikings to victory.

“We knew our shots would start to fall eventually, that if we just had to continued being patient and playing good defense, we would get back into the game,” said Rivera.

After the game, the Vikings celebrated the win with their fans who were sitting courtside. Emotions on the players’ faces were evident; how happy and relieved they were to have won the championship.

“This is the best feeling in the world, we came together as a team and achieved our goal, and went out on top,” said Jason Harris, a senior forward for the Vikings.

Many students and teachers from Saint Johns Catholic Prep showed up for the game, and showed great school spirit throughout the entire contest. The students really helped cheer on the Vikings and support them.

“The students were awesome,” said freshman point guard Trevor Lechuana, “they really helped us keep our heads up when we got down early and motivated us to keep battling.”

The Vikings ended their season on a great note, going out as champions. I’m sure the entire school can’t wait to see the Vikings try to defend their championship next year!