Kindred Vikings defeat Shiloh Christian, advance to third boys state basketball title game in four years

FARGO — For the third time in four years, the Kindred Vikings are heading to a boys basketball state championship game.

Kindred defeated the Shiloh Christian Skyhawks 56-46 in Friday night’s North Dakota Division A state semifinal at the Fargodome to advance to the title game.

The Vikings will take on the

Devils Lake Firebirds, who defeated Grafton in the semifinals

, in Saturday’s championship game

After missing a chance to go to the Class B tournament last season, the Vikings are glad to be back in a title game this year, said coach Brad Woehl.

“It feels really good,” said Woehl. “We have a great group of kids. We fell a little short of going to the state tournament last year against Central Cass.

“These kids have worked hard and put a lot of time into it. A lot of time and dedication. I am very proud of them.”

Kindred’s Karson Ouse started off hot going 4 of 4 on threes in the first quarter to help the Vikings establish a lead just over a minute in. They never relinquished it.

Ouse finished with a team-high 24 points, finishing with six triples and going 9 of 12 from the field.

“It was important for us (to start strong),” Ouse said. “We came out a little slow yesterday, I thought. We just had to come out strong against these guys because they’re a really good team and they weren’t going to lay down at all.”

For the second night in a row, Kindred’s Jake Starcevic helped get the energy rolling early for the Vikings with the first basket of the game and a handful of steals in the first half.

Like Ouse, Starcevic felt that setting the tone high early was an important factor in getting the win.

“The first three minutes is always huge in any half of basketball,” Starcevic said. “We always come out and try to start fast. We came out and started fast. We let them creep back in a little bit but held them at arm’s length for most of the game.”

Starcevic had eight points while Vikings’ teammates Presley Peraza and Jack Davis each had nine.

“It was awesome,” said Starcevic. “Shiloh is a really good team. We played them tough and they played us tough. Any time you can get a state semifinal win, it feels good. But we’re not satisfied with that. We have some more work to do.

“Devils Lake is a very good team. We’re going to go into (Saturday) with confidence and let the chips fall where they may.”

Ouse shared similar feelings about moving on to the championship game against Devils Lake.

“It’s just an unreal feeling with how much success this program has had,” said Ouse. “We’ve been dreaming of this since the start of the season. But we’re not done yet. We want to go get one more.”

Shiloh Christian’s Atticus Wilkinson scored a team-high 13 points with teammates Caden Englund and James Melberg also cracking double digits with 12 and 10 points. Englund and Wilkinson each had eight rebounds.

Kindred will battle the Devils Lake Firebirds on Saturday for the Division A boys basketball state championship.

Going into the game, the still undefeated Kindred Vikings aren’t focused on their record. The attention, said Woehl, is all on the championship game.

“We don’t talk about not having a loss on the season,” Woehl said. “Devils Lake is going to be a tough matchup. They match our length and physicality. It’s going to be a great game and I’m looking forward to it.”

Saturday’s Division A boys basketball state championship game is set to tip off at 5 p.m. and can be seen on WDAY or streamed on WDAY+.

Shiloh Christian 11 11 14 10 — 46
Kindred 18 10 13 15 — 56

SC: Wilkinson 13, Englund 12, Melberg 10, Westin 7, D. Davis 4.
KIND: Ouse 24, Peraza 9, Davis 9, J. Starcevic 8, Bakko 4, Sunram 2.