ATHENS – The Three Amigos.

Sunday, February 25, 2001

ATHENS – The Three Amigos. Justin Myers, Adam Corn, and Drew Hunt may not be close off the court, but they certainly were close on the floor Friday night as they made enemies of the Racine Southern Tornadoes.

The Symmes Valley trio combined for 69 points as the Vikings whipped the Tornadoes 71-53 to win the Division IV sectional tournament.

Myers hit 12-of-13 shots from the field, scored 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Hunt had 23 points and Corn scored 19 points including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.

"One of our goals was to win the sectional," Vikings coach Alvin Carpenter said. "We talked at the beginning of the year about winning the league, setting the school record for wins, and to get to the district finals. Hopefully we’ll get (to the district finals)."

Symmes Valley (16-5) will play in the district tournament at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at Ohio University against the winner of Saturday’s Whiteoak vs. New Boston game.

It was only the second sectional title in school history. The first came four years ago.

"Since we’ve been coming up here, we got beat in overtime twice, so to finally win (the sectional) feels great. The team did a great job," said Myers.

Jonathan Evans had 16 points, Garrett Kiser 15, and Jeremy Fisher 13 for Southern (12-9).

The game was tight through the first three quarters. Symmes Valley finally took over the fourth quarter and outscored Southern 21-5. The Tornadoes hit just 2-of-16 field goal attempts in the quarter.

"We talked at the half about stepping up the defense and picking up the intensity. Give Corn credit for his great defense," said Myers.

The Vikings jumped out to a 6-0 lead before Southern came alive. Fisher sank two free throws and made two straight layups to put the Tornadoes ahead 15-13, and a foul shot by Kiser made it 16-13 at the end of the quarter.

Hunt hit a 3-pointer to put the Viking back on top at 21-19 at the 5:38 mark. Hunt’s baseline jumper with 1:58 left gave the Vikings a 26-25 lead, but Fisher’s layup at the 1:30 mark sent Southern to the locker room with a 27-26 halftime lead.

The lead changed hands five times and the score was tied on five more occasions the third quarter before Symmes Valley went up on a layup by Myers with eight seconds to go.

Myers was 5-of-5 from the field the third quarter and 7-of-7 for the half as he scored 17 of his points.

"We told them at the half if we can get the ball inside, there’s no way they can stop him," coach Carpenter said. "Corn did a great job on (Kiser) and Myers dominated the second half."

Corn and Hunt hit 3-pointers to ignite a 12-0 run to begin the fourth quarter and give Symmes Valley a 62-48 lead. A 3-pointer by Evans halted the streak at the 3:14 mark, but the Vikings outscored the Tornadoes 9-2 the rest of the way to win handily.