Viking men nab home win vs. Ancilla

Making their season debut at the revamped Viking Athletic Center Saturday, the Glen Oaks Community College men's basketball team rallied in the second half against Ancilla College for a 95-87 victory. 

Point guard Keri Foster ignited in the second half, scoring 24 of his game-high 29 points to move the needle for the Vikings. Amauri Moore poured in 18 points and Kelvion Brown reached double figures with 12. 

Glen Oaks trailed by as many as 11 points with under nine minutes to play after the Chargers buried back-to-back 3-pointers. But triples by Foster and Joreim Lomax cut the deficit to one point with 5:07 to play. 

A Moore bucket briefly gave Glen Oaks a lead, as did a pair of free throws by Foster and two from the stripe by Akin Smith. Ancilla didn't budge, however, and tied the game at 81-81 with another trey. 

Foster answered with an and-1 that fired up the GOCC bench. A late 3-pointer by Smith and a lob from Foster to Lomax helped put the game out of reach in the final minute. 

It was an important victory for Glen Oaks, which hadn't played a true home game all year until Saturday, and had to hit the ground running in November with a coaching change. 

"We were kind of able to put it all together for this game," Glen Oaks head coach Sam Waniewski said. "Culture is the biggest thing we're trying to get across to our guys. We're about building this program for the long term. I do believe these guys are buying in. And now that we have our gym done, the guys are super excited."

The Vikings were 13-for-16 from the free throw line and hit 12 3-pointers in the game. And defensively, Waniewski's squad tightened the screws over the final 20 minutes. 

"I talked to the guys right before the game and said, 'let's put on a clinic of showing these fans what it looks like to play together,'" Waniewski said. 

Foster's production was no surprise to Waniewski. 

"He was lower in the rotation at the beginning of the year and he just stuck with it and stuck with it," he said. "He came hard to practice every single day and now he's one of our main rotation guys. At the beginning of the year, he didn't have much of a voice. Now he's a leader out there."

The win boosted Glen Oaks to 10-13 overall and 2-7 in MCCAA Western Conference play. Lomax and Marlon Gaitan both tossed in 9 points, Smith finished with 7, Jaiden Stamps ended the contest with 6 and Darius Styles had 5. 

Complete game stats were not available at the time of publication. 

The Vikings travel to Lake Michigan College Feb. 11 for a 7:30 game against the Red Hawks.