Vikings move to 7-0 with Clarinda Academy, East Mills drubbings

From start to finish, the Stanton Vikings were in clear control.

Tuesday night, Stanton nearly cracked triple-digits on the scoreboard for the first time in over seven years with a win over Clarinda Academy 92-35.

The closest the Vikings have been to hitting 100 points before Tuesday was Feb. 14, 2008, when Stanton was away to South Page. That game featured the Vikings winning 84-44.

Tuesday night’s win had three scorers on the front foot for Stanton. Brady Johnson notched 26 points, Easton Blunt poured in 21 on 7-10 shooting from behind the three-point arc, and David Sorensen splashed 16 points, as Stanton shot 39 of 62 from the floor.

The Vikings doubled the Eagles’ rebounding totals, 40-20.

Tuesday featured four games with a team reaching 90 points: Stanton; Grand View Christian (vs. Moravia, 93-39); IKM-Manning (vs. Griswold, 92-31); and Western Christian (vs. Emmetsburg, 98-46).

Stanton moved to a perfect 7-0 on the year with a win over East Mills Friday night, 67-48. Behind David Sorensen’s four second-half three-pointers, the Vikings took off in the third and never looked back.

At points, East Mills hung tough against Stanton, but big men Alex Bechtold and Brady Johnson were able to push the Vikings on to the win.

“Brady did a great job, Alex did a great job before he got into foul trouble,” said Blunt. “We got some good looks inside. We count on that a little bit. Our big guys move well inside, and we can get them some easy baskets off rebounds.”

The Wolverines had the opportunities to piece together points, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds – 34 rebounds in total – but Stanton balanced its scoring enough to run away with the game in the second half.

“We didn’t match their physicality a lot of the times,” head coach Kevin Blunt said. “That allowed them to get some rebounds, some put-backs. All-in-all, I thought we shot the ball a lot better the second half.”

Stanton is shooting 51 percent from the floor this season, up 10 percent from its sub-.500 season last year. 

Uncharacteristically slow in the first quarter, the Vikings put in just 12 points to open the contest. The season average for Stanton in the opening stanza is more than 22 points, followed by a 17-point second quarter.

On the opposite side, East Mills was just two points away from its season average of nine in the first quarter. The season-low for the Wolverines was none in the first against Fremont-Mills Dec. 8.

Leading the charge for the Vikings was Sorensen, followed by double-digit scoring performances by Johnson (16 points), Easton Blunt (13) and Bechtold (10).

“We really have six kids that can score in double-digits every night; it just depends on which ones,” coach Blunt said. “With our freshman Drake Johnson coming off the bench, and Dave and Easton can shoot the three pretty well. Connor can slash to the basket pretty well. Then Reese, Brady and Alex can shoot the ball around inside and get some easy baskets.”

For East Mills, Noah Richter was the lone Wolverine in double-digits, going 4-13 from the floor, including 2-7 from beyond the three-point arc, for 10 points. 

Stanton finishes 2015 with Griswold on Monday, while the Wolverines play at Nishnabotna Tuesday.