The Wolves played the Vikings last night, but unlike the first meeting with a Viking team this basketball season, the stands weren’t packed, the fans weren’t rowdy, and the game didn’t come down to the wire.

Instead, Niles West beat the Amundsen Vikings 54-40 in the Regional play-in game to earn a spot against New Trier in tomorrow night’s Regional Semi.

Varsity Head Coach Bob Williams thought that the team played extremely well for most of the game.

“I thought that we persevered, we played really well early, and we kinda let up a little bit in the middle portion, that’s what we’ve been working against all season, and we played well again at the end,” he said.

Amundsen won the opening tip, but the Wolves scored first on a lay-up by senior Cory Dollins. West played tenacious defense early on, forced the Vikings into countless turnovers, and started the game on a 12-2 run. At the end of the quarter though, the Wolves were only up 16-11 after Amundsen battled back with nine quick points.

The Vikings then pulled within one after hitting back to back shots to start the second quarter. West pulled away again, but were eventually reeled in by Amundsen, who took their first lead of the game (24-22) on a buzzer beating three from the corner to end the half.

The second half was as back and forth as the first. The Wolves opened the third quarter on a 5-0 run, and pushed the lead to five on a three by senior Muhibb Sadiq. Amundsen battled back once again, and came within two on another three-point buzzer beater.

West pulled away in the fourth and eventually won the game by 14, 54-40. West was led in scoring by juniors Alex Darville with nine, and David McCoy with seven. Senior Captains Nathan Sagget and Alek Biser scored four and two respectively.