Staff Appreciation day will tip off the Viking vs. Lincoln Way East rivalry matchup tonight. The team hasyet to see East this year and hope to honor the staff with a conference win.

On Tuesday, the boys reigned victorious over Bloom (64-46). In the previous week the team recovered from their losses to Boylan Catholic and Bolingbrook with a close overtime win against Sandburg (44-42).

“We really just want to take it game by game,” senior forward Malcolm Grady said. “We plan on winning State but at the least, we want to win sectionals.”

It won’t be smooth sailing through conference because the team has many good teams to play before they can achieve their State dream.

“Bolingbrook is our biggest competitor,” senior guard Destin Barnes said. “ They have a lot of size and athleticism.”

The Vikings played the Brook earlier in the season and they took a tough loss 65-55. They will see them once again on senior night and plan to leave the gym with a win.

The start to the boys season was rocky but the players are confident in where the team will go this season.

“I think we can make it pretty far in the playoffs,” sophomore guard Nicholas Perry said. “But in the end, we just want to be a better team than we are now.”

Even with sights on a successful end to the season, the guys also want to get more out of the season than just a good playoff run.

“Of course we want to go downstate,” Barnes said. “ But a common goal we share is to be playing the best basketball we know we can whenever our season ends.”

It’s mid basketball season and the guys are focused on the finish line. Not only do they want to do well in playoffs but they want to better the team as a whole.

“Our main goal as a program is to do things the right way, all the time, regardless of the situation,” said Head Coach Marc Condotti. “We try extremely hard as coaches to instill the importance of hard work and togetherness into our players so that these concepts transfer not only to the basketball court, but more importantly into real life habits.”