MOUNT BERRY, Ga. - The Viking men's basketball squad fought the Centre Colonels in a nailbiter "Pack the House" game on Friday. Energy was at its max, and the Vikings seized the moment with a 63-62 victory. 

Mason Lawrence was the story of tonight's battle, as he anchored the Vikings offensively and defensively with a career-high 12 points and five rebounds. Cameron Pope was up to his usual activities, scoring 13 points to lead the Vikings and grabbing four big rebounds. Isaac Martin's relentless energy defensively stifled Centre's main options to give Berry the advantage down the stretch.

The game started out electric, with the Viking Drumline adding to the already pulsing Viking spirit. As regulation started, Cameron Pope came out of the gates strong with back-to-back buckets, mounting pressure on the Colonels early on, gaining an early 3-0 run. The first half was met with consistent field goals from Ryan Luttrell and Drew Winegarden. A fan favorite moment from the first half included a flashy Aaron Gordon-style dunk from Nile King, which sent the crowd into another dimension. The Vikings ended the first half, leading 29-24. 

As the masses started to pile in for the second half, it seemed like the whole school was ready to see a special night of Basketball. Mason Lawrence and Issac Martin set the pace with early second half buckets, maintaining a decent 36-27 lead. Bouncing off that momentum, Martin and Nile king sent the lead to 12, asserting a "this is our turf" attitude. 

As the Viking's started to turn up the jets, so did the Colonels. Various fastbreaks and turnovers shrunk the Viking's lead to just 7 points. The tide started to turn here, seeming like this wasn't going to be a runaway game. With about 5:32 to go on the clock, the Viking's lead was tested once more, now to 3.  

As the Colonels inched closer, Pope knew it was his time to get a clutch basket. With just a one point advantage and 75 seconds to play, he weaved his way to the hoop and finished an extremely difficult layup through Colonel defenders to push their lead back to three. On the insuing Centre possession, they would respond with a layup of their own to trim the Berry lead back down to one. A couple of missed free throws from the Vikings set the game to come down to one possession. With just ten seconds left, the Colonels called the final timeout of the game to set the stage. Centre executed a play to get a shot from the top of the key, but a Cam Pope contest was too much for it as it fell short. The drama was not over though, as Centre corralled the offensive rebound, but the defensive pressure from the Vikings was too much for them to get a shot off in time, leaving the crowd draining the Cage Arena with cheers and excitement with the 63-62 victory secured.

The Vikings plan to close out their weekend at home against Sewanee on Sunday.