ST. IGNATIUS — The Charlo Vikings defeated a Mission team coming off a rough loss to Ronan by a close score of 41-36 on Saturday in St. Ignatius.

Going into the night, Mission head coach James Lozeau said his team needed to look past Ronan and focus on the game at hand.

“It was kind of funny though,” Lozeau said. “I didn’t say much about Ronan or anything. You gotta have the mind of a quarterback and forget about what happened,” he said.

Instead, he had words of inspiration for his team, which had talked about going 8-0.

“We can go 7-1 tomorrow night if we work hard enough,” he said to his team after the Ronan game.

But despite an early Mission lead, Charlo put in the work and came out with the victory.

Escaping a 24-19 deficit at the half, the Vikings put their heads down, apparently finding some inspiration of their own during half time. Outscoring the Bulldogs 10-3 in the third, Charlo took the lead, despite superb shooting by Mission junior Jorren Gies, who scored 21 points in first half of the game.

In the fourth, the Vikings expanded their two-point lead by relying on a variety of players to make their shots. Without any exceptional individual scoring performances, great team ball proved to be all the Vikings needed to win that one.

In fact, Charlo had eleven players score baskets in the win with freshman Tyler Krell leading with eight. Senior Josh Sharbono netted seven and junior Chance Firestone scored five. 

Throughout the game, Mission struggled in shooting free throws, Lozeau said.

Even Gies went one for 7 when he’s usually good for five with that many attempts. He also failed to score from the field in the second half.

“It was that kind of night,” Lozeau said.

Of all the things that were there to bring them down, from Charlo’s size to turnovers, nothing affected them like free throws, Lozeau  said.

His team shot 5 for 28 in the game at the line and just three for 10 in critical fourth quarter minutes, poor timing for a team that lost by only five points.

“That was our Achilles heel. You make ten more of them you win the game,” Lozeau said.

Mission’s other top scorers were senior Jordan Rohrich with five, freshman Austin Durglo with five and sophomore Spencer Ahlborn with four.

Charlo plays Two Eagle River next at 7 p.m. on Jan. 3 at home.

Mission plays Eureka at 6 p.m. on Jan. 3 in Eureka.

Charlo   6   13  10  12 - 41

Mission 13 11   3    9  - 36