SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — On Tuesday, Dec. 20, the South Tahoe Vikings basketball team traveled to El Dorado Hills to battle Union Mine High School.  

The games did not go as expected as all three teams (varsity, JV and frosh) lost their matchups.  

Union Mine is an elite program that is always at the top of their league. In a remarkable display of three point shooting, Union Mine combined for over 50 made three pointers in the three games. 

The Varsity boys fell 90-49 as UM buried 25 threes in the game. 

There were some bright spots for the Vikings as they went in short handed with only eight players but showed Coach Tom Maurer a willingness to battle until the end.  

“It’s all about finding our way through the preseason and building the foundation for the league games,” Maurer said. “It is not always about winning but getting better each game and learning from both wins and losses is important. We had strong performances from several players to build on.”  The Vikings record stands at 1-6 with Dayton up next.

The JV and frosh teams also went down by large margins as UM’s JV hit on 22 of 32 threes. JV Coach Phil Bryant said that his team was only down six at the end of the first quarter but is still in the middle of a shooting slump that doesn’t seem ready to end.  

“Our guard play has been a little inconsistent in shot selection and score/time awareness,” Bryant said. “They are a good group but mostly freshmen on the JV so the learning curve is still slow in developing. I believe in these guys but I think we need to shake up the lineup some to get better on court decisions.”  

Bryant said a real bright spot has been the play of sophomore Ryder Tanacci with support from Caleb Holcomp, Esha Davis and Parker Bryant (all freshmen).

Coach Scott Jones is in his first year with the Vikings frosh and has been pleased with the player development of individuals and feels the team is steadily improving. His emphasis is on supporting what Coach Mauer wants with the young players and getting them prepared for the next level. At his point he did not want to single out any particular players but feels he has several who are capable of stepping up at any time.