West comes up short despite Fred Stokes' dominant performance

By Team Reports Dec 25, 2023, 10:13pm

Recap: West Vikings vs. Mission Oak Hawks

The West Vikings's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Thursday after their third straight loss. They ended up on the wrong side of a rough 76-53 walloping at the hands of Mission Oak. West was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 40-20.

When it comes to explaining why West lost, one person who can't be blamed is Fred Stokes. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 19 points and ten rebounds. The matchup was Stokes' seventh in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaiyon Dixon, who scored 12 points along with seven assists and three steals.

Mission Oak's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ricardo Reyes led the charge by scoring 17 points along with six rebounds and four steals. Those four steals set a new season-high mark for him. Another player making a difference was Ristian Elzy, who scored 17 points along with five steals.

West has fallen quite a ways from their 21-9 record last season and are now at 2-5. As for Mission Oak, their victory bumped their record up to 3-5.

West's road trip will continue as they head out to face Central Valley Christian at 3:00 p.m. on December 15th. Hopefully Central Valley Christian focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 28 on Thursday. Mission Oak will be home for the holidays to greet Liberty at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Liberty has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 354 points over their last five matches.