The Valley Central boys’ basketball team hung with the Kingston Tigers for the first quarter.

But the Tigers’ shots started falling to start the second, and the Tigers blew out their lead and sent the Vikings to a 66-49 Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association crossover loss on Thursday at Valley Central High School.

It was the second straight night that both teams played with the Vikings holding on for a 10-point win over the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders on Wednesday and the Tigers cruised to a 48-point win over the Pine Bush Bushmen.

“We played a tough game last night,” Valley Central coach Frank Nutt said. “We were up 22 with a minute and a half left in the third quarter, and our mindset went from ‘oh, we can just coast,’ and we ended up having to play a tight game with Monroe. All the credit to them for coming back. They played Pine Bush last night, they got up big and were able to sit some guys, and I think you can tell after the first quarter, we got a little tired.”

The Vikings trailed the Tigers, 12-10, after the first quarter, but the Tigers started dropping points in the second quarter.

Ke’Montae Thawe hit two 3-pointers, and Derek Constance hit one to quickly turn that two-point lead into an 11-point lead, 21-10. The Tigers outscored the Vikings 21-8 in the second quarter to take a 33-18 halftime lead.

Elijah Abrams scored a game-high 20 points to lead three Tigers in double figures. Thawe added 19 and Demario Smith scored 12.
“Our defense was not good tonight,” Nutt said. “You could tell we were a step-and-a-half slow, but overall when you go 2 of 24 from 3 and you miss 10 free throws, (we were fortunate) to have it even 17 at the end of that game.”

Even though the Vikings’ 3-point shooting was cold, Thawe was hot as 15 of his 19 came from behind the 3-point arc.

“Ke’montae did a great job; he played very well,” Nutt said. “If you come out and guard him, he can go past you. He’s very physical. If you stay back, he can hit the 3. He’s a tough player, and we’ve got to do a better job on him.”

It also was a slow night for Raysean Johnson, who entered the game needing 26 points to become the second 1,000-point scorer in Valley Central history. He finished with a team-high 19 points but only scored four in the first half and didn’t hit any 3-pointers.
Jerrell Taylor added 16 points.

“He struggled in the first half, and he’s a big part of our offense,” Nutt said. “He opens things up for other guys because he commands so much attention. When shots aren’t falling for him, guys don’t have to close out as hard, and it doesn’t really give our other guys great looks.”

Johnson had a better night the previous night, scoring 31 points in the Vikings’ 70-60 win over Monroe-Woodbury. Taylor scored 17, and Jason Murphy added nine.

With his struggles on Thursday night, Johnson will likely score his 1,000th point on the road against the Warwick Wildcats.

“Our message doesn’t change,” Nutt said. “We have to be better tomorrow than we were today. We’re focused on Wednesday now. We’ve got to make sure we have good couple days of practice and get everybody healthy and ready to go for Wednesday.”