GEORGETOWN, TX – The Vikings looked to bounce back at Southwestern, and they did just that with a nail-biting 79-77 victory over the Pirates.
Berry's unselfish ball movement proved to be the story in this one, with 17 assisted baskets on the night.
Nile King led the pack with 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists. Backing him up was Isaac Martin, who had 19 points, including five three-pointers.
The game began with Nile King asserting himself with back-to-back-to-back textbook moves on the inside to give Berry a 6-5 lead at the 16-minute media timeout. After a response from Southwestern, Cameron Pope diced his way through the lane and kicked out to Isaac Martin, who drilled a three to give the Vikings a 9-7 lead with 14:30 remaining in the first half.
King continued to put his imprints on the game with a beautiful dish to Bennett Frazer for an easy finish under the basket, right before King added seven consecutive points to give himself 13 on the evening and an 18-15 lead for the Vikings.
The Pope-Martin connection was pure again, as Pope once again dashed to the paint and kicked out to a hot and ready Martin, who made it a 21-17 ball game with his three pointer with 10:39 remaining in the first half. The offensive pressure continued with the second unit, as Isaac Plavich found Ryan Luttrell, who sank a three to push the Viking lead to five.
With a 33-23 advantage and 5:49 to play in the half, the two teams traded baskets until the Pirates strung together three straight baskets to draw within 5 with just over 1:30 left to play in the half. Still up 35-30, the Vikings were in desperate need of a basket but could not find the bottom of the nylon, closing out the first half with just two points in the final five minutes of the half. Their strong defensive effort made up for the lack of scoring though, as they maintained a 35-31 lead at the break.
The Pope-Martin connection reigned true once again to start the second half, as Cam found Isaac wide open off a set drawn up by coach Richter for an easy three-point shot to push their lead to seven. Now feeling it, Martin took a pull-up heat check which proved to be right on time to push the lead to ten off a steal and dish from King with 18:54 left in the game. A few possessions later, Mason Lawrence finished back-to-back layups to give Berry their largest lead of the game at 12.
A perfectly executed inbounds play led to an open Martin three, as he drilled his third three of the half to give Berry a 50-37 advantage with 16 and a half minutes to play. The floodgates continued to open from beyond the arc as Pope found King on the wing, who drilled a three to push the lead to 15. Grant Stubbs got involved with the three-point barrage with a trey of his own by way of a Drew Winegarden assist to give Berry a 58-45 advantage with 13 minutes to play. Khamani Paxton got loose to bury a three-pointer of his own to push the Berry lead back to double digits, 64-53 with ten minutes left.
Down the stretch of the game, the Pirates continued to stay within striking distance and got the Viking lead down to 6 with 6 minutes to play. An aggressive drive and kick from King set up Pope from beyond the arc, who drained a three, and on the following possession scored at the rim to push the lead back out to nine with four minutes to play.
This one went down to the wire though, as Southwestern converted an and-one to cut the Berry lead to just three, 75-72 with 2 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the game. In need of a bucket, Cameron Pope sized up his defender and leaned to the baseline for a beautiful layup that extended the lead back out to five.
With a three-point lead and under 30 seconds to play, a Pirate found daylight and nailed a three to tie the game at 77 with 18 seconds left in regulation.
A high IQ play from Isaac Martin led to three foul shots for the cerebral assassin, as he felt his defender out of position and rose up to draw the foul. Martin hit two out of the three shots to give Berry a two-point advantage with 4 seconds to go. The Pirates went streaming down the court and drew a foul to give them a chance to tie. The Pirates missed both though, and escaped with a 79-77 victory.
The Vikings are back in action on Sunday against Trinity (TX) at 3 PM ET.
