The Colorado stomp

Capping a 33-point career-high performance with a steal and a thrilling, two-handed fast break dunk, junior guard Dupree Lucas pumped his fists and howled up into the rafters of the Stott Center last night.

In the final six minutes against Northern Colorado Wednesday, everything fell into place for the mercurial Vikings as the team bounced back with an 86-71 win over the Bears.

“Very pleased we pulled that one off,” said head coach Ken Bone. “I felt like we played average basketball until the last six minutes.”

And while coach Bone’s team did look pretty mediocre until the final minutes, Dupree looked good all game.

Lucas almost single-handedly kept the Vikings afloat early, scoring 19 of the team’s 36 points in the first half.

“Dupree had a great game again,” explained Bone. “He’s playing the way we thought he would play more mid-December, but it’s hard when you sit out a whole season. Rarely, rarely, rarely do you see someone sit out a whole year and then boom, they take off and play well. It’s hard to get into that game competitiveness and to know where you fit in.”

Lucas admits it wasn’t easy, but he has definitely found his spot.

“It was hard to find a role. I went through a phase where I was just trying to get a lot of assists for us, then there was a phase where I was trying to score for us from three. I think I got consumed by the three-point line early in the season, and that didn’t work out for me.”

What Lucas discovered was that he could be a scorer, but it was the mid-range that would be his specialty. As he has begun to come in to his own offensively, Dupree’s teammates were doing a poor job of carrying their share.

That is, until tonight when senior sharp-shooting forward Juma Kamara seemingly broke out of his slump. Kamara, in his first game coming off the bench, hit seven of his 10 attempts from the field, finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

After the game Juma talked about coming in with the second unit, and how it helped his game.

“It could have something to do with it,” Kamara said. “It didn’t change much because I still played my regular minutes.” But then, after thinking about it a minute, Kamara changed his mind. “Actually, it gave me time to sit back and see the flow of the bench, and see how you can mesh in the game.”

Happy as Juma was about his resurgent performance, perhaps no one was happier than Dupree.

“You have no idea. That was lovely,” Lucas beamed. “Me and Juma were talking earlier, saying that we gotta get it going, and he said, ‘don’t worry man, I got you.’ He got it goin’ today and I’m proud for him.” If the Vikings can take that last five minutes and turn it in to 40, well, this could end up a heck of a season.

But the team has vowed to take it one step at a time. “We can’t get too happy,” explained Kamara. “It’s just one game.”