ALBANY - Brandon Meudt and Kaleb Feller wouldn't be popular guys around games of chance.
Albany's boys hoops club entered Tuesday night's Six Rivers East tilt riding its only pair of back-to-back wins on the season. That is until the Viking duo played the role of cooler to perfection in a 46-42 victory.
After upsetting Juda in overtime on Saturday, Albany (3-16, 1-11 Six Rivers East) led by eight points early before the Vikings got down to some steady work.
Pecatonica (9-10, 6-6 Six Rivers East) cut the halftime deficit to two points at 21-19 before taking a 32-28 lead into the fourth quarter, setting the stage for Meudt to put the clamps down.
The Vikings senior scored nine of his 21 points in the final quarter with his most devastating hoop coming with just under six minutes to play as he splashed a 3-pointer from the top of the key over Lance Hulbert to take a 37-31 lead.
"Brandon did a great job of stepping up in the fourth quarter and that's what you come to expect from him," Pecatonica coach Jim Syse said. "He did a great job on the defensive end of the floor too and I think what we did on that end was just as important as our offense."
After an Albany timeout Kaleb Feller put the cap on another solid individual performance with one of two free throws and an old-fashioned three-point play that built Pec's biggest lead to 41-31 midway through the final quarter.
The last eight-minute session was a breath of fresh air after the Comets' initial surge of energy put an awful lot of air in the lungs of its home crowd.
"They came out with a ton of energy and I think they're vastly the most-improved team in our conference this season," Syse said.
While the Comets came out sizzling, Feller kept his club steadily in the race by hitting two 3s in the first two minutes over outstretched arms.
"They play a sagging man and, after watching it on film, I told Kaleb, 'If you've got your shot, take it every time,'" Syse said.
T.J. Zweifel stopped the fourth-quarter bleeding momentarily before Meudt hit the beforementioned 3-pointer as the Albany junior hit a rainmaker of his own from the corner off an assist by Hulbert.
But the Meudt-Feller duo was just too much.
"It's tough when you know those are the two guys you have to stop going in and you can't do it anyway," Albany coach Derik Doescher said. "That's a credit to them; Feller and Meudt have been around success and they know when to crank it up."
With typically-starting center Tyler Bauman only playing in the second half after missing the past week-plus due to family vacation, the Vikings may have enjoyed a subtle height advantage for a change.
Maybe.
"We never have a height advantage," Syse said with a laugh. "When Kyle Hook is out there, we're 6-2, other than that, we're 6-foot."
Doescher says Bauman, a junior, will quickly gel into the chemistry his club found in his absence and was very delighted with the grinder minutes put in by senior Marc Johnson, who tied for second-best on Albany's team with six points.
"Mark Johnson gave us some real good minutes and his buckets came off being active," Doescher said. "He did a lot of things that won't show up in the stat sheet."
Now he hopes his club hasn't lost an irreplaceable feeling.
"After winning two games in a row, we expected to win," Doescher said. "That's how we should feel at any time whether it's noon hour, summertime or game night."
Albany's boys hoops club entered Tuesday night's Six Rivers East tilt riding its only pair of back-to-back wins on the season. That is until the Viking duo played the role of cooler to perfection in a 46-42 victory.
After upsetting Juda in overtime on Saturday, Albany (3-16, 1-11 Six Rivers East) led by eight points early before the Vikings got down to some steady work.
Pecatonica (9-10, 6-6 Six Rivers East) cut the halftime deficit to two points at 21-19 before taking a 32-28 lead into the fourth quarter, setting the stage for Meudt to put the clamps down.
The Vikings senior scored nine of his 21 points in the final quarter with his most devastating hoop coming with just under six minutes to play as he splashed a 3-pointer from the top of the key over Lance Hulbert to take a 37-31 lead.
"Brandon did a great job of stepping up in the fourth quarter and that's what you come to expect from him," Pecatonica coach Jim Syse said. "He did a great job on the defensive end of the floor too and I think what we did on that end was just as important as our offense."
After an Albany timeout Kaleb Feller put the cap on another solid individual performance with one of two free throws and an old-fashioned three-point play that built Pec's biggest lead to 41-31 midway through the final quarter.
The last eight-minute session was a breath of fresh air after the Comets' initial surge of energy put an awful lot of air in the lungs of its home crowd.
"They came out with a ton of energy and I think they're vastly the most-improved team in our conference this season," Syse said.
While the Comets came out sizzling, Feller kept his club steadily in the race by hitting two 3s in the first two minutes over outstretched arms.
"They play a sagging man and, after watching it on film, I told Kaleb, 'If you've got your shot, take it every time,'" Syse said.
T.J. Zweifel stopped the fourth-quarter bleeding momentarily before Meudt hit the beforementioned 3-pointer as the Albany junior hit a rainmaker of his own from the corner off an assist by Hulbert.
But the Meudt-Feller duo was just too much.
"It's tough when you know those are the two guys you have to stop going in and you can't do it anyway," Albany coach Derik Doescher said. "That's a credit to them; Feller and Meudt have been around success and they know when to crank it up."
With typically-starting center Tyler Bauman only playing in the second half after missing the past week-plus due to family vacation, the Vikings may have enjoyed a subtle height advantage for a change.
Maybe.
"We never have a height advantage," Syse said with a laugh. "When Kyle Hook is out there, we're 6-2, other than that, we're 6-foot."
Doescher says Bauman, a junior, will quickly gel into the chemistry his club found in his absence and was very delighted with the grinder minutes put in by senior Marc Johnson, who tied for second-best on Albany's team with six points.
"Mark Johnson gave us some real good minutes and his buckets came off being active," Doescher said. "He did a lot of things that won't show up in the stat sheet."
Now he hopes his club hasn't lost an irreplaceable feeling.
"After winning two games in a row, we expected to win," Doescher said. "That's how we should feel at any time whether it's noon hour, summertime or game night."
