It wasn’t the size of the team, but the size of the fight in the team that mattered during the Viking JV basketball game at Darrington, Jan. 12.

“It was strangely legendary,” said JV coach Corey Wiscomb.

The team began the game with only four JV players, and by the fourth quarter they were down to two boys on the court.

“We just told them, ‘You can’t get into foul trouble’,” laughed high school coach Gregg Sasan.

Varsity Viking Taylor Diepenbrock joined the game as the required fifth player, allowing play to begin, but was only permitted to participate for the first quarter. Regulations limit each eligible player to four quarters of play per day, in any game. The Viking varsity team played first, and by the JV game almost every varsity player had used all four of his available quarters. Only Diepenbrock had played just three quarters.

Devon Stanzione and Josh Lawson both fouled out by the fourth quarter, leaving Chase Drake and Rylan Date to battle out the final minutes against a full team of Darrington players.

The rest of the JV team missed the game because of academic ineligibility, illness, and an injury.

Despite their numbers, the Vikings gave Darrington one heck of a fight.

“It was pretty intense,” said 15-year-old Drake. “So it started out five on five. One of the varsity players had one quarter left, so he played with us. The next quarter it was four on five, and on the fourth quarter two people fouled out. Then it was just me and Rylan. We were actually ahead for most of the game.”

Wiscomb recalled the most memorable moment, toward the end of the game.

“We had only two guys, two of our smaller players. Chase is 5’0” but he can dribble like a mad maniac. He dribbled around all of them and scored a layup. Then he turned around and started a full court press, with two guys! He was fully into it. They were having a hard time; he was playing such tough defense, the guy couldn’t get rid of the ball. Nothing would stand in his way.”

Wiscomb added, “They played their butts off. Even the Darrington crowd started rooting for us. There was a good energy in that room.”

And he says one of the referees came up after the game and told the boys, “That was one of the most amazing games I’ve ever seen.”

Sasan said that some of the parents from the other team came and talked to the Orcas boys after the game.

“They were really positive about it,” he said.

Sasan admitted that hugs were involved in post-game exchanges, although he refused to identify the parties involved.

The Vikings had a great game, scoring 52 points, including eleven three-point shots.

“We shot really well that night; we played really well defensively. I wish we could always play like that,” Sasan said.

“They were trying so hard to stop us and shut us down, but they kept fouling us. We couldn’t penetrate down low because of their numbers, but we got lots of free throws,” Wiscomb said.

Wiscomb said the dwindling Viking team was still leading by two points as the final seconds ticked by.

But as the buzzer sounded, a Darrington player sunk a turnaround jump shot to tie the score, sending the game into overtime.

“We were bummed; we thought we had it,” said Wiscomb.

Darrington finished off overtime with a mere eight point lead, at 52 to 60.

“I thought the kids played their hearts out; they were very very tired after the game,” Sasan said.

And according to Sasan, varsity Viking Tyler Nigretto told the JV boys, “You may have lost the game, but you’re winners in my heart.”