Last Saturday night, the DVC Vikings fell 72-91 in the second round of the California Community College playoffs against the #3 ranked Fresno City Rams. The Rams moved on to the Northern Regional Finals as the Vikings’ hard fought season came to an end.

“I think we were glad we made it this far into the season. We were glad that we had this good team chemistry and just had a good year overall,” said Vikings’ First Team All Conference forward Isaih Hood about the team’s season in spite of the loss.

Before their eventual defeat, DVC had previously won a narrow game against Chabot College 74-72, 

Hood explained that their game plan for Saturday was to slow the pace of the game down and take care of the ball, considering that Fresno has athletes that play aggressively on defense. 

Even with solid players, the Vikings held off the Rams early on, but ultimately started to slip as the game progressed. 

“It started getting away from us with six or seven minutes left in the first half. They went on a run that gave them a 15 to 20 point lead going into the half which really killed us.”

The Rams were able to get into passing lanes and pick DVC’s pockets all night, as the Vikings recorded a total of 22 turnovers.

“Off those steals they got a lot of easy layups and wide open shots” said Hood.

Fresno’s opportunities off turnovers reflected their overall scoring for the night, shooting an efficient 57.6% from the field. 

“We’re obviously sad about the loss… But overall, I would say we surpassed expectations for our team. We were projected to be very low in the state and nobody expected us to make the playoffs.”

Prior to this playoff run the Vikings went on, they had not made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season. Excitement for the team began to build when they finished the regular season ranked #19 in the state.

Even after being ranked top 20, Hood credits the two losses to Modesto and Delta College at the end of the regular season as to the turning point of the team’s overall finish.

“Losing to Modesto and Delta dropped us significantly. We were supposed to be a seventh seed before the playoffs started and once we lost those two, obviously we couldn’t win our conference anymore, so that hurt us.”

Going forward, Hood, as well as other players will not continue with the team, but for head coach Steve Coccimiglo, who has coached DVC for 30 years, will carry on leading the men’s basketball program.

Hood praised his coach’s steady system and persistent philosophies, which he thinks will be a good foundation for future teams to adopt.

“He is definitely a winning coach… He drills our plays into us and the fact that he is so consistent with telling us how he wants us to play, definitely helped us out. The way he makes us play fundamentally with all the sets is something a lot of (junior college) teams aren’t used to which helped us win a lot of games this year.”

With the season coming to an end, Hood reflects on his two years playing for the Vikings. 

“I’m proud of what we accomplished as a team. I’m glad we made it as far as we did even though I wish we could’ve made it further. I wish we could’ve had a better season with winning the conference but I’m proud of the guys, proud of the team, excited for the team they’ll have next year, and I’m grateful for being able to play here.”