On Thursday Team 2 took to the court again, hosting the Eagles of East Leeds. The East Leeds team sits in 8th place with a win over Vikings. York Vikings 2nd team came to the game with having lost all 13 games this season and an overall record losing streak of 17 games, going all the way back to the 19th of March 2023.

With a win of more than 6 points over East Leeds Eagles, Vikings could not only stop their losing streak, but also move up to 8th place and make the playoffs.

Knowing what was at stake and with 10 players available, the team started strong. Playing composed against the Eagles zone defence, Vikings started off with an 8 - 0 run (including 2 three pointers). The away team got into the game with free throws, but the home team kept the pressure on defensively employing a man to man, while continuing to play very controlled offense and win the first quarter 20 - 14.

In the second quarter Eagles opened the scoring, but then Vikings pressured on defence to get a number of fast break points to go on another 8 - 0 run. After that the offence stalled, but defence was still tight and the York team managed to win the quarter 11 - 9 and have a half time score of 31 - 23.

In the second half VIkings continued their strong effort on defence, which meant a few more fouls, giving Eagles the opportunity to stay in the game. However, the defence managed to contain Eagles overall, while continuing to play team basketball on offence and thus winning the third quarter.

With a 49 - 35 score, Vikings could sense they could get the W. Eagles however wanted to deny this and pressured the Vikings and with players becoming nervous the team from East Leeds managed to go on a 7 - 0 run in 2 minutes, prompting Vikings to call a timeout. Eagles continued their run to close the gap 51 - 46. With some team rotations Vikings got back their composure and managed to control the game and take the first W and make the playoffs.

Notes: Vali Moldovan returned from a 3 month injury absence. Seb Shepherdson extended his streak of making at least 1 three pointer per game to 6. Team 2 had the second most three pointers in a game with 8, since the 4th of November 2021, where they had 9.