With just under four minutes left in the third quarter, the Fremont Firebirds took a 22-21 lead over the favored Palo Alto boys’ basketball Vikings. The Firebirds never scored again, losing 40-22, giving the Vikings a perfect home record (8-0) for the fourth straight year.

Having already clinched the De Anza league title for the fourth consecutive season with a 51-36 win over Milpitas on the road on Tuesday, the Vikings returned home for their regular season finale on Senior Night.

“We want the seniors to have a memorable night,” head coach Peter Diepenbrock said. “But we also need to get prepared for the playoffs.”

With the win, the Vikings will likely receive a high enough seed to earn a first round home game in the Central Coast Section playoffs. After that, the Vikings will need to win CCS to get a chance at another home game.

Standing in the Vikings way of a higher seed in the CCS playoffs was the Fremont Firebirds. The Vikings (17-7, 10-2 league) barely defeated the Firebirds, 41-37, in the first league game of the year on Jan. 2. The Firebirds (16-12, 3-9) came in hoping to avoid what happened the last time they came to Paly. One year ago yesterday, the Vikings humiliated the Firebirds 60-20, including a 47-3 run that lasted 17 minutes.

On Friday, the Firebirds made sure they weren’t going down that easily again. The Vikings sent out seniors Jonny Palmer, Nick Goodspeed, Josh Bennett, Paul Reamey, and Christian Bakken to start the game to honor their five seniors. After scoring only two points in the first six minutes, head coach Peter Diepenbrock put in five subs, benching all five seniors. The replacements didn’t do much better and the Vikings trailed 7-4 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was reminiscent of the massacre a year ago as the Vikings went on a 17-3 run before the Firebirds cut the halftime lead to seven. Bakken scored eight points in the quarter, one more than the entire Fremont team.

The third quarter was uneventful with each team scoring eight points, putting the score at 29-22. It seemed as though the Firebirds had stopped trying as the game meant basically nothing to either team. Palmer knocked in five points in the final quarter as the Vikings shut out the Firebirds for the last 12 minutes of the game.

Bakken led all scorers with 12 points and junior Dom Powell added 11. With Paly on school vacation and the league title already clinched, the excitement in the gym was noticeably lacking.

Friday’s win verified that the Vikings deserve the league title, winning it their own way. Eight times, the Vikings won a game while scoring less than 52 points and the Vikings held their opponents to less than 40 points an astonishing 14 times.

As the #3 seed in CCS Division II, the Vikings will host the first round matchup against Westmoor (13-13) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 21. If victorious, the Vikings will most likely play Archbishop Mitty, the top seed and the same team the Vikings beat twice in last year’s playoffs.

They may not have the spark or dazzle of previous years, but the Vikings are once again headed to the playoffs where anything can happen, as proved by last years’ state champs.