After a disappointing couple of days in Devils Lake, the Valley City Hi-Liners turned in a more competitive effort but still fell to the Kindred Vikings, 63-46.

The opening quarter featured a scoring duel that would last all night between Valley City’s Miken Mattson and Kindred’s Brooks Bakko, with each scoring 10 points. Valley City trimmed the deficit to three in the closing seconds, but Bakko banked in a near half-court 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Vikings a 21-15 lead.

Kindred pushed its advantage into double figures in the second quarter as Bakko continued to dominate, finishing the half with 22 points. Mattson matched him point for point, also scoring 22 in the first half, and capped the quarter with a layup that cut the deficit to 37-30 at the break.

The third quarter turned into a low-scoring grind as both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm. Bakko accounted for 10 of Kindred’s 12 points in the quarter, while Mattson was limited to three of Valley City’s points. The disparity proved costly for the Hi-Liners, as Kindred used that stretch — along with a late surge — to pull away for good.

Bakko led all scorers with 38 points, while Mattson finished with 29. No other player from either team scored more than eight points.

Valley City returns to action Thursday with a road matchup against the Devils Lake Firebirds. The Hi-Liner girls will also be in action Thursday against the Lisbon Broncos, that game can be heard on 1490 AM and 96.3 FM KOVC and online at NewsDakota.com.