PROCTORVILLE – The Symmes Valley Vikings asked for patience.

Saturday, February 16, 2002

PROCTORVILLE – The Symmes Valley Vikings asked for patience. And they wanted it right now.

The Vikings showed patience the second half Tuesday and rolled past the Fairland Dragons 81-62 as Terry Elswick had 23 points and Drew Hunt scored 22.

Kyle Gilmore and Kevin Miller had 10 points each.

"We had a little talk Monday. We decided we needed to be more patient on offense, play better defense, and play hard all the time. We did that tonight and we played one of our better ball games of the year except for the end of the first half," Carpenter said.

Symmes Valley led 28-18 with two minutes left in the half, but Fairland rallied to take a 30-29 lead at the break. It was Fairland’s only lead of the half.

But Drew Hunt scored 11 points the third quarter as the Vikings outscored the Dragons 25-12 to take a 54-42 lead.

"Drew didn’t force anything. He was relaxed, took his shots when they were there and passed it when he saw the open man," Carpenter said.

A key reason the Vikings scored 52 points the second half was due to reduced turnovers. Symmes Valley had 13 of its 17 turnovers in the first half.

"We told them that everyone would get shots if we just ran through our offense and stopped forcing things," Carpenter said. "Once we cut down our turnovers we got plenty of shots and we started to score some points. Our guards have really stepped it up the past two or three weeks."

Terry Elswick had 10 points the fourth quarter including 8 of 10 from the line to offset 10 points by Darren Colburn as Symmes Valley won going away.

The Vikings led 16-14 after the first quarter and then Chris Dinwiddie had eight points the second quarter to trigger the comeback.

But Symmes Valley dominated the second half to improve its record to 11-8.

Colburn had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Dragons (8-11).

On Friday, Fairland closes out the regular season against arch-rival Chesapeake in the final game in the Dragons gym. Fairland opens its new high school next fall.

Chesapeake needs a win Friday to claim the Ohio Valley Conference title outright.

Symmes Valley finishes at home with Portsmouth Clay.

In the reserve game, Fairland (8-9) won 59-50 Jeremy Pritt scored 29 points, Matt Rowe 10, and Matt Pritt 11 for Fairland. Chris Elswick had 22 points and Cory Burcham 12.

Sym. Valley 16 13 25 27 – 81

Fairland 14 16 12 20 – 62

SYMMES VALLEY (11-8): Chris Elswick 1 0 0-0 2, Kyle Gilmore 1 2 2-4 10, Terry Elswick 4 1 12-16 23, T.J. Grubbs 0 0 0-0 0, Drew Hunt 3 4 4-6 22, David Owens 2 0 0-1 4, Kevin Miller 5 0 0-0 10, Jared Shafer 1 1 0-1 5, Brandon Runyon 2 0 1-4 5, Eric Holland 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Roth 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-65 (8) 19-32 81. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 16. Rebounds: 41 (Miller 16, Runyon 10). Assists: 16 (T. Elswick 10, Hunt 5). Steals: 13 (T. Elswick 7). Turnovers: 17. Blocked shots: 7 (Miller 4).

FAIRLAND (8-11): Michael Hill 0 0 1-2 1, Darren Colburn 7 0 6-8 20, Dru Brooks 1 1 1-5 6, Chris Dinwiddie 3 2 0-0 12, Brad Taliaferro 3 0 2-3 8, Kendall Staggs 1 0 0-0 2, Jeremy Pritt 1 0 0-0 2, Ryan White 2 0 5-5 9, Matt Clark 1 0 0-1 2, Matt Pritt 0 0 0-0 0, Doug Spence 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-57 (3-18) 15-24 62. Fouls: 24. Fouled out: Hill. Rebounds: 14-21=35 (Colburn 13). Assists: 18 (Hill 5, Colburn 3, Taliaferr 0 3, Dinwiddie 3). Steals: 6 (Hill 3). Turnovers: 24.