Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

WILLOW WOOD — There was good and there was bad. Fortunately, there was a lot more good.
Giving a good performance, the Symmes Valley Lady Vikings won their Southern Ohio Conference opener 62-25 over the Green Lady Bobcats on Monday.
“We did a lot of things right,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Alvin Carpenter.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but this is a good start. We had good balance offensively, we hit the boards and we played good defense.”
Symmes Valley (1-1, 1-0) had 11 players score led by Jensyn Shepherd with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Hailee Littlejohn pulled down eight rebounds as the Lady Vikings collected 49 as a team.
Payton Walsh added 10 points and five assists while Rachael Hayes also had 10 points. Sierra Ross had six steals, Kaitlyn Crabtree four assists and four blocked shots, and Shepherd two blocks.
Kaylynn Blizzard had a game-high 17 points to lead Green.
Walsh scored 8 points in the first quarter as Symmes Valley jumped out to a 22-4 lead.
The lead was 30-6 at the half and Hayes scored 8 of her points in the third quarter as the Lady Vikings extended the lead to 48-12.
Kinzi Kitts scored all 6 of her points in the fourth quarter.
Symmes Valley plays at South Gallia on Wednesday and hosts Beaver Eastern on Thursday.
Green       4    2    6    13    =    25
Symmes Valley    22    8    18    14    =    62
GREEN (0-1, 0-1): Kaylynn Blizzard 6 0 5-10 17, Megan Johnson 0 0 1-2 1, Leslie Gallion 0 1 1-3 4, Payton Gaffney 0 0 1-3 1, Carrie Derifield 1 0 0-0 2, Amy Laber 0 0 0-0 0, Hailey Hammond 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 7 1 8-18 25. Fouls: 6. Fouled out: None.
SYMMES VALLEY (1-1, 1-0): Kaitlyn Crabtree 1 0 1-2 3, Payton Hunter 0 1 0-0 3, Kinsey Kazee 2 0 0-0 4, Jensyn Shepherd 5 0 2-2 12, Sierra Ross 0 1 0-0 3, Rachael Hayes 2 2 0-0 10, Kinzi Kitts 0 2 0-0 6, Hailee Littlejohn 0 0 1-4 1, Kassie Baldwin 1 2 0-2 8, Payton Walsh 2 2 0-2 10, Taylor Sells 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 14 10 4-12 62. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 49 (Shepherd 10, Littlejohn 8). Steals: 11 (Ross 6). Assists: 15 (Walsh 5, Crabtree 4). Blocks: 8 (Crabtree 4, Shepherd 2). Turnovers: 4.